AirAsia tragedy hits home: Student on missing flight

A MONASH University student is among the 162 people lost at sea aboard missing AirAsia Flight QZ8501 it has emerged.

Facebook pictures of Kevin Alexander Soetjipto, a student at the Clayton campus of Monash University. A spokeswoman for Monash confirmed a student of theirs named Kevin Alexander was among the missing

A MELBOURNE student is among the 162 people lost at sea aboard the missing AirAsia flight.

The Herald Sun understands Monash University student Kevin Alexander Soetjipto was travelling from Indonesia to Singapore with relatives when the plane vanished over the Java Sea.

The student is originally from Malang in Indonesia and it is believed he was in Australia on a student visa.

Posts on social media show Mr Soetjipto to be a fun-loving young man who had recently had a trip to New Zealand and enjoyed meals out with friends and trips to the beach.

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He attended Trinity College at the University of Melbourne on a foundation course and graduated in 2013 before embarking on a commerce course at Monash’s Clayton campus later that year.

The course he was enrolled on at Monash is due to finish in 2015.

“We are deeply saddened to learn this news in relation to one of our valued student community,” Monash spokeswoman Stacey Mair said last night.

“We will be offering counselling support to Kevin’s friends and fellow classmates.

“We offer our sincere thoughts and prayers to all of the families of those onboard the flight.”

The identities of other victims were revealed yesterday, including a young couple in love with bright futures, who had met at university and planned to marry.

Ruth Natalia Puspitasari celebrated her birthday on December 20, she was gifted a trip to Singapore with her future husband and his family.

The beautiful 26-year-old and her boyfriend — toy store owner Bob Hartanto Wijaya — are among the Indonesians on board AirAsia Flight QZ8510.

The young couple had met at Petra Christian University in Surabaya, Indonesia — the same town their ill-fated flight had taken off from.

But after graduating, economics student Ms Puspitasari — from East Java — had moved to Guangzhou, China while her beau, who had studied architecture, stayed behind after becoming co-owner of Eka Toys in his hometown of Malang.

Despite the distance, the couple planned a bright future together, with Wijaya’s Facebook page boasting beaming photos of the loved-up couple. Mr Wijaya’s family — including his parents and two other relatives — were also on the plane.

Ms Puspitasari’s father told Indonesian media he was anxiously awaiting news about his daughter’s flight. Meanwhile a 12-month-old is believed to be the youngest passenger to have perished, with her Christian missionary parents, from South Korea.

Park Seong-beom, 37, his wife Lee Kyung-hwa, 36, and baby Yuna were originally from a fishing village 280 miles south of Seoul. The young family had been living in Indonesia but were travelling to Singapore to renew their visas.

It has emerged that British businessman Choi Chi Man — who lives in Singapore but works in Indonesia for manufacturing firm Alstom Power — and his two-year-old daughter were supposed to be on an earlier flight but it was full.

Friends in the UK have told British media that the Mr Choi had only been able to secure two seats on the earlier flight, so sent his wife and son ahead and booked seats the later flight for himself and their daughter.

Mr Choi, who is in his 40s and grew up in Hull, north of London, was believed to be travelling to Singapore for New Year’s Eve celebrations with his Singaporean wife and children.

At the Surabaya airport, passengers’ relatives pored over the plane’s manifest, crying and embracing. Nias Adityas, a housewife from Surabaya, was overcome with grief when she found the name of her husband, Nanang Priowidodo, on the list.

The 43-year-old tour agent had been taking a family of four on a trip to Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia’s Lombok island.

“He just told me, ‘Praise God, this new year brings a lot of good fortune,”’ Adityas recalled, while weeping.

Nearly all the 162 AirAsia passengers and crew are Indonesians, who are frequent visitors to Singapore, particularly for holidays — one of them, Maria Florentina Widodo who graduated from University in 2012.

The plane had an Indonesian captain, Iryanto, who uses one name, and a French copilot, five cabin crew members and 155 passengers, including 16 children and one infant, the airline said in a statement.

“Papa, come home, I still need you,” Angela Anggi Ranastianis, the captain’s 22-year-old daughter pleaded on her Path page late Sunday, which was widely quoted by Indonesian media.

At Iryanto’s house in the East Java town of Sidoarjo, neighbours, relatives and friends gathered on Monday to pray and recite the Koran to support the distraught family. Their desperate cries were so loud, they could sometimes be heard outside where three LCD televisions had been set up to monitor search developments.

“He is a good man. That’s why people here appointed him as our neighbourhood chief for the last two years,” said Bagianto Djoyonegoro, a friend and neighbour.