HILO, Hawai'i — The pilot of the Island Hoppers plane missing since midday Tuesday is a skilled aviator from Japan and long-time Big Island resident who "lives and breathes flying."

Katsuhiro Takahashi, 40, is a chief flight instructor for Hawaii Flight Academy and tour pilot with Island Hoppers, both operated by Above It All Inc.

Takahashi is the most skilled pilot working with the company, said Michael Rushton, a pilot who previously worked with Takahashi at Island Hoppers.

"He's a hard worker, he comes in on his days off, he's always polite to everybody. Everybody likes him," said Rushton, who travels back and forth between Hawai'i and Alaska, working as a pilot in both places.

"I've never heard him say a swear word or anything. He's just always positive and a hard worker. A skilled pilot, too."

"Katsu," as Takahashi is known, "holds the only master chief flight instructor designation in the state of Hawai'i, and lives and breathes flying," according to the Hawaii Flight Academy Web site.

He has a "long history of flight instruction, first at an aviation college in Arizona, and then as director of our own flight program," the company said. "In the several years he has been on our staff, Katsu has earned an enviable 100 percent pass record for every student he has prepared for an FAA flight test."

While some pilots come and go from Hawai'i, Takahashi made a life for himself in Kona and became a full-time resident, Rushton said.

Takahashi is from Japan and speaks Japanese, although he has lived in the U.S. for about 18 years. He would have been a logical pick to pilot a flight of Japanese tourists, Rushton said.

Rushton said he has met Takahashi's wife, but does not know if he has children.

"I hope that he'll be OK, and I want to pray for his wife and family. That's a rough situation. I don't know what to say," Rushton said.

The route around the Big Island varies somewhat each day with the weather, but Rushton said he does not know what might prompt Takahashi to deviate significantly from the normal flight path being searched by rescue crews.

"Unless there was some kind of emergency or something, I don't know," he said.

Rushton was the pilot of an Island Hoppers flight on April 16 that had to make an emergency landing on a highway about a mile from Kalapana with six passengers. No one was injured in that incident, and several passengers praised Rushton's calm demeanor as he guided the plane to a safe landing.