Story highlights Coach says young pilot was a soccer player who had a knack for when to tell joke 
 
 Haris Suleman, 17, was at the controls during his trip around the world 
 
 His father, Babar Suleman, was traveling with him and is missing 
 
 Haris' sister says her brother and dad had trained for a water landing 
 
 It was supposed to be the trip of a lifetime. An aerial endeavor that would take 17-year-old pilot Haris Suleman and his father, Babar, around the world in just 30 days and into the record books. 
 
 The journey, months in the planning, would take the pair on a 26,500-mile odyssey, with 25 stops planned in 15 countries. The aim was to raise funds for a charity in Pakistan that helps poverty-stricken children go to school. 
 
 Instead, the American teenager is now confirmed dead and his father is missing after their plane crashed into the ocean off American Samoa on Tuesday night. 
 
 Haris had been due home in Indiana on Saturday, his sister Hiba Suleman told reporters Wednesday. 
 
 His body has been recovered, she said. But their father, also a pilot, has not been found. 
 
 "We're hoping my dad is alive and well, and we're going to keep praying until we have a definitive answer," Hiba Suleman said. 
 
 She told reporters the plane was about 23 miles from the island when it crashed. Her father wouldn't have let Haris take off if the weather was bad, she said. 
 
 It is unclear why the plane crashed or why the duo took off at night. 
 
 "He was doing something that he loved. He was doing something adventurous," she said of her brother, who received his pilot's license in June. And he was doing it for a good cause, she added. 
 
 'On my bucket list forever' 
 
 In an interview with CNN affiliate WISH TV last month, only days before the pair set off, Haris appeared excited as he outlined their itinerary -- which if completed in 30 days in their single-engine plane would have made him the youngest pilot to achieve the feat. 
 
 He also told how he and his father had received survival training in case of having to ditch their plane in the water. 
 
 Babar Suleman, asked about the inherent risk involved in such a venture, said he put his faith in sound preparations. 
 
 "In all these endeavors, the biggest part of the whole thing is the planning," he said. "While he was training and getting his license, I was busy planning all the different segments, all the different fuel stops, different cruise profiles. I set up all of the plans and he will do all the execution." 
 
 The record-breaking attempt, he said, "has been on my bucket list forever." 
 
 Babar Suleman also spoke of the importance of the work done by the Seeds of Learning charity , an Indiana group which supports the work of the Citizens Foundation in Pakistan. 
 
 The money raised, he said, would help open schools "for underprivileged children who otherwise would not have a hope of getting an education and may even end up in the wrong hands." 
 
 He expanded on his charitable motivation for the trip in his blog, Around the World in 30 Days , explaining how in the wake of the September 11, 2001, attacks in the United States he had come to the conclusion "that lack of proper education contributed to the events of that day." 
 
 The work of the Citizens Foundation to provide education to thousands of impoverished Pakistani children is, he said, "the noblest of all causes." 
 
 The last entry on the blog is posted from Bali, Indonesia. 
 
 'Huge heart' 
 
 The principal of the high school where Haris was a rising senior said the school was deeply saddened by his death. 
 
 "Haris' adventurous spirit and huge heart led him to reaching for this personal goal while also seeking to raise funds and awareness for schools supported by The Citizens Foundation, a nonprofit organization headquartered in Karachi, Pakistan," said Melvin Siefert, principal of Plainfield High School. 
 
 A soccer coach at the school told the Indianapolis Star that Haris was a great student and a talented player. 
 
 "Haris loved to joke a lot," David Knueve told the newspaper. "He just got the team sort of laughing at the right moments." 
 
 His sister said Haris planned to be an engineer like his father. 
 
 The oldest sibling, a brother, was trying to get from London to American Samoa to pick up Haris' body but there were only a few flights, Hiba Suleman said. 
 
 Emergency beacons 
 
 A Coast Guard spokeswoman, Petty Officer Melissa McKenzie, said a plane would aid in the search for Babar Suleman. 
 
 He and Haris were wearing "gumby" suits that could help them survive a water landing, Hiba Suleman said. She said they had taken a course in how to survive a crash in the ocean. 
 
 They also had life rafts aboard. 
 
 The next legs of the trip were supposed to cross the Pacific Ocean, with stops in Kiritimati (also known as Christmas Island) and Hawaii. 
 
 The plane has yet to be recovered, but emergency beacons were sending out signals. 
 
 The National Transportation Safety Board said the plane was a Beechcraft Bonanza A36. 

 Babar Suleman and his son Haris Suleman, 17, Plainfield, are heading out on an around-the-world flight that they're hoping will take 30 days, Greenwood, Thursday, June 19, 2014. (Photo: Robert Scheer/The Star) 
 
 Haris Suleman, 17, was on the adventure of his young life. 
 
 He died nearing the end of that adventure, his family learned Wednesday. But the Suleman family now hopes — and prays — that Babar Suleman, Haris' father and co-pilot, will still be found alive. 
 
 The Plainfield teen was piloting a single-engine aircraft around the world under the watchful eye of his father to try to set a world record and raise money to build schools in Pakistan. 
 
 UPDATE: Searchers find plane crash wreckage off Samoan coast 
 
 Their plane crashed about 10:15 p.m. American Samoan time Tuesday, just 20 minutes after taking off from that island en route to Hawaii, Haris' sister, 26-year-old Hiba Suleman, said Wednesday. 
 
 "They were together and doing what they loved," she said. 
 
 Hiba Suleman and Azher Khan, a family friend and local president of the charity for which Haris and Babar Suleman were trying to raise money, spoke at a news conference at the Islamic Society of North America in Plainfield. 
 
 The family was notified of the crash by the U.S. Coast Guard early Wednesday, Indianapolis time, Suleman said. At that point, the Coast Guard had searched about six hours, found Haris but was still looking for her father, Hiba Suleman said. 
 
 They were about 23 miles off the coast of American Samoa when radar indicated the plane had gone down, she said. Beyond that, the family doesn't yet have details, but even in grief over Haris, they cling to hope. 
 
 "It is a tragedy of immense proportions," Khan said. "We are all still hopeful that we will have Babar come back." 
 
 Haris was testing the limits of his patience and endurance on the grueling monthlong trip, facing travel delays, discomfort from sitting long hours in a cramped cockpit, food poisoning and more. He and his father still faced more stops in Hawaii, California and Texas before their expected arrival home in Indiana on Saturday. 
 
 But on Tuesday, several hours before leaving American Samoa, Haris still held on to his enthusiasm for the journey, taking time to tweet that "Pago Pago is without a doubt (among the) top 5 places I've been this summer." 
 
 The beauty of Pago Pago! pic.twitter.com/1zTWFtj6fO — BonanzaBoi (@worldrounder) July 22, 2014 
 
 All of that came to a sudden, tragic end when the Beechcraft A36 Bonanza crashed into the sea. 
 
 Night-time takeoff 
 
 The National Transportation Safety Board confirmed Wednesday afternoon that officials were investigating the accident. The cause of the crash is not yet known. But Khan said the plane's "black box" was pinging, allowing searchers to home in on it and, the family hopes, find Babar Suleman. 
 
 Hiba Suleman said her father and brother had taken an open-water survival training course before they began their adventure, wore ocean survival "Gumby suits" and that her father also wore a locator beacon on his person. She last spoke to her father Tuesday morning, local time, and said he told her he was watching the weather and would not leave American Samoa if threatening weather were still in the area. 
 
 It's not known whether weather was a factor over the ocean after the plane took off, but Hiba Suleman said she is certain of her father's safety precautions. 
 
 "If they had known there was bad weather, they would never have taken off," she said. And although the record was part of the goal father and son shared, she said safety still trumped all for her father. "Time wasn't really an issue." 
 
 The night-time takeoff was unusual, she said, but there so far are no explanations. 
 
 "We don't know why they did that." 
 
 Khan, who is board president of Seeds of Learning, the Indianapolis chapter of The Citizens Foundation, said the trip "was for a noble cause. It was for building schools for impoverished children." 
 
 Haris had fun-loving personality 
 
 Haris was going to be a senior at Plainfield High School in the fall. He is being remembered as an outstanding student and a talented soccer player who played for the junior varsity soccer team, said his coach David Knueve. 
 
 Haris had a way of lifting the spirits of his teammates, Knueve said. Often, he would tell jokes on the bus as the team traveled to matches. 
 
 "Haris loved to joke a lot," Knueve said. "He just got the team sort of laughing at the right moments. That's the biggest thing." 
 
 The Plainfield Community School Corp. released a statement saying they were "deeply saddened to learn of the death of one of our students. ... Haris's adventurous spirit and huge heart led him to reaching for his personal goal while also seeking to raise funds and awareness for schools supported by The Citizens Foundation." 
 
 9 days away from home. I'll be flying every day starting tomorrow in order to get back! See you soon Indy :) — BonanzaBoi (@worldrounder) July 16, 2014 
 
 Eric Kesterson, a Plainfield resident who knew the family, said he is in shock from the news of the crash. 
 
 "I'm in denial right now," Kesterson said. "I just expected them to come home." 
 
 Two coaches, two sons 
 
 Kesterson met Babar 12 years ago, when they were paired to coach a soccer team for Haris and Kesterson's son, Lucas. 
 
 Babar is the reason Kesterson now coaches and his son plays travel soccer, he said. 
 
 "He set the standard for me and introduced me to the sport," Kesterson said. "He taught me to teach kids, to stand up for them — not just to teach them a sport. You're teaching them life skills they could use later in life." 
 
 Haris and Kesterson's son, Lucas, remained friends over the years. Lucas drove to the Greenwood Municipal Airport in June to say goodbye before the Sulemans took off. 
 
 "We have a connection to that family that will never be broken," he said. "I still coach and he (Lucas) still plays. ... They helped us get to where we're at." 
 
 Kesterson described Haris as kid with a "larger than life" personality. 
 
 "He just had a passion for life," Kesterson said. "That was what you liked about him. ... That was what was good about him." 
 
 The Sulemans have raised more than $500,000 for The Citizens Foundation. Since word of the crash, people have donated at least $400 to the Sulemans' fundraising campaign. Those interested in donating can visit their gofundme page: www.gofundme.com/8pshds. 
 
 Haris had recently acquired his pilot's license and instrument rating, which authorized him to fly an aircraft over oceans. He took an interest in the round-the-world flight after years of flying with his father, an engineer who flew in his spare time. 
 
 Last week Haris told The Star he also enjoyed the lessons he learned through aviation. 
 
 A hurried return home 
 
 "I feel like becoming a pilot has changed me a lot," he said. "It's really hard to get to a point where you can fly around the world." 
 
 Hiba Suleman was at a conference in Washington, D.C., Wednesday, when her mother Shamim Suleman, contacted her. Hiba hurriedly flew back to Indianapolis. 
 
 Her older brother, Cyrus Suleman, 29, was in London and Wednesday was on his way to bring Haris' body home, she said. 
 
 Sunday is the last day of Ramadan, a monthlong Islamic holiday of fasting, family and prayer. The Suleman family would normally have hosted a big gathering and feast to celebrate, Hiba Suleman said. 
 
 "But that won't be happening." 
 
 Before the pair left, the family talked about the possibility of a worst-case scenario, Hiba Suleman said, but in her fog of shock Wednesday, she said that conversation felt a little vague. 
 
 "I feel like we didn't really talk about anything important," she said. But, she said, reality also had not set in. 
 
 "We knew there was a risk, but you can never expect something like this." 
 
 Call Star reporter Diana Penner at (317) 444-6249. Follow her on Twitter: @dianapenner. 
 
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– An Indiana teenager is dead and his father is missing after an attempt to set a world record ended in tragedy off the coast of American Samoa. Haris Suleman, 17, was trying to become the youngest person ever to pilot a single-engine plane around the world in under 30 days, reports the Indianapolis Star. Family members say Suleman crashed minutes after taking off Tuesday night on a flight bound for Honolulu. The Coast Guard located the wreckage and Haris' body, but the teen's father, Babar Suleman, is still missing. Haris, who was due to arrive back in Indiana on Saturday, was trying to raise money for a nonprofit that builds schools in Pakistan, his sister tells CNN. "He was doing something that he loved," she says. "He was doing something adventurous." The family is holding out hope that the father survived the crash and will be located by search teams. Like his son, he had taken an open-water survival course before the round-the-world journey and was wearing an ocean survival suit equipped with a locator beacon.