Son of AirAsia pilot unaware of crash

The eight-year-old son of the AirAsia QZ8501 pilot does not know his father's plane has crashed, relatives have said.

The pilot's brother Budi Sutiono has told his nephew Galih that his father will not be coming straight home because he has another job to do, the Telegraph reports.

"He thinks daddy is still at work," he said.

"Pilots are often away from home on work so when we told him he accepted it.

"But he keeps asking us and he keeps crying because he misses his father."

Mr Sutiono said televisions in the house have been switched off and they were not discussing the disaster when the boy was around.

"Slowly we will try to explain what has happened to his father. But it needs time."

The pilot Irianto, who like many Indonesians goes by just one name, had buried his other brother only a week ago.

Irianto's father Suwarto told the BBC that he last saw the pilot at the funeral of his other son, who died of diabetes.

"I want my son to come back alive and well," he said on Monday.

"But if that's not meant to be, if God doesn't want it, it's in the hands of fate."

Irianto's 22-year-old daughter Angela posted a touching message on Twitter on Tuesday, including a photo of the two of them together.

"Papa come back, I still need you," she wrote.

Irianto has been remembered by colleagues as being professional and humble.

So far only seven bodies have been recovered from the wreckage of the plane, with 155 still unaccounted for.

Indonesia authorities warn that bodies may drift onto the beaches of Borneo as efforts to access the crash site are hampered by bad weather.