Missing MH370 pilots - 'final two words, marriage woes, and deleted route'
The pilots of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 came under question as investigators delved deeper into what might have happened with the missing plane.
On March 8, 2014, the commercial plane vanished during a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. Ten years on, there is still no definitive answer as to what happened to the jet and its 227 passengers and 12 crew, with it regarded as one of the most perplexing aviation mysteries of all time.
The flight set off as normal from the airport and it was tracked for the first 40 minutes in the air. But mere seconds after crossing into Vietnamese airspace, MH370 disappeared off the radar with its signal lost. Attempts to make contact failed.
After an investigation was launched, Malaysian authorities confirmed the plane's tracking devices were switched off in the cockpit. Officials believe communications were deliberately disabled, with the aircraft knowingly steered off-course.
However authorities also noted that the pilots hadn't requested to be placed on the same flight that day. It was commanded by senior pilot Zaharie Ahmad Shah and first officer Fariq Hamid. They were subsequently investigated, with their homes raided. As BBC airs a new fascinating documentary - Why Planes Vanish: The Hunt for MH370 - The Mirror takes a look at who the pilots were...
MH370 theory claims new 'three-part riddle' could solve missing plane mystery
Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah
Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah, from Penang, was a veteran pilot with more than 18,000 hours of flying experience. The 53-year-old was a father-of-three, and described as a passionate cook and keen fisherman, the BBC reported.
He lived with his wife in an upmarket gated community in Kuala Lumpur. However several reports suggested his wife had moved out of the family home the day before the fateful flight, after she told him she was leaving him. A fellow pilot and associate of Zaharie told the New Zealand Herald that he had been "terribly upset" by his relationship troubles.
There were also reports that Zaharie messaged young models online, while a young woman, interviewed following the plane disappearance, claimed he invited her and a friend into the cockpit during a flight in 2011, where he flirted with the pair. Photographs of the women backed up the allegation.
His son later hit back in the press, saying that he was ignoring the speculation as he "knew my father better." The family was interviewed alongside 100 others as part of an investigation into the backgrounds of every person on board the mystery flight. Fellow aviators said Zaharie was viewed as a mentor by young pilots, and was a self-confessed 'aviation geek'.
MH370 captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah flew a similar route the doomed jet took on a flight simulatorAs shown in the BBC documentary, Zaharie had built his own flight simulator in his home, which mirrored the Boeing 777-200 he was piloting. He uploaded videos to YouTube, where he "dedicated many hours of his time to promoting the enjoyment of flying".
But his makeshift cockpit became a focal point in the investigation, and it was seized by police. A friend of the captain insisted it was unfair to implicate any wrongdoing, and he himself had tried out the creation. They said in a CNN interview: "It's a reflection of his love for people because he wants to share the joy of flying with his friends."
As highlighted in the doc, Zaharie flew a simulated flight deep into the remote southern Indian Ocean less than a month before the plane vanished in similar circumstances. The controversial details, which many claim Malaysia withheld from a public report, appear to be the strongest evidence that the captain deliberately steered the plane off-path as part of an elaborate murder-suicide plot.
A document, obtained by New York magazine, revealed the FBI recovered six deleted data points that had been stored on an elaborate Microsoft Flight Simulator X program. The data points show a 'flight' that leaves Kuala Lumpur, heads northwest over the Malacca Strait, then turns left and heads south over the Indian Ocean, continuing until fuel exhaustion over an empty stretch of sea. Search officials believe MH370 followed a similar route, based on signals the plane transmitted to a satellite after ceasing communications and turning off course.
While the actual and simulated flight details were not identical, the jet's assumed endpoint is the same as that of the simulated flight - some 900 miles from the remote patch of southern ocean where officials believe the plane went down. Malaysian authorities have repeatedly refuted claims Zahaire deliberately flew the plane into the sea, and did not include the details of the flight simulator in the Factual Report released on the first anniversary of the disappearance.
Malaysia Airlines plane (Getty)The reports stated: "The Captain's ability to handle stress at work and home was good. There was no known history of apathy, anxiety, or irritability. There were no significant changes in his life style, interpersonal conflict or family stresses."
Doomed Malaysian Airlines flight MH370 may have 'crashed in different ocean'
Another friend of the captain, a fellow Boeing-777 pilot who wished to remain anonymous, argued a mass murder-suicide was "the necessary conclusion". He told the Atlantic that he had reluctantly come to the conclusion that Mr Shah deliberately crashed the plane, given the evidence amassed by independent investigators.
The lifelong friend said: "It's hard to reconcile with the man I knew. But it’s the necessary conclusion." He suggested the captain likely tricked his inexperienced co-pilot, Fariq Hamid, into leaving the cockpit before locking him out. The pal added: "Zaharie was an examiner. All he had to say was ‘Go check something in the cabin', and the guy would have been gone."
The theory suggests the plane's passenger cabin was deliberately depressurised to kill everyone on board hours before the crash. Before doing so, Mr Shah could have put on an oxygen mask in the cockpit so he could continue to fly the aircraft for hours.
At around the same time the cabin was depressurised the electrical system was deliberately turned off, making the plane impossible to track by satellite. There was suspicion that the pilot was clinically depressed.
Another point of contention raised in regard to Zaharie was his link to politics. Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim, who was given a jail sentence just hours before the plane disappeared, initially denied knowing the pilot before admitting he was related to his son's in-laws. He argued the speculation around their connection was a "smear campaign".
Mr Zaharie joined the airline as a cadet pilot back in 1981, and was sent to the Philippines for training. Once graduated, he received his pilot's licence two years later and became a second officer. In 1991, he was promoted to captain of Boeing 737-400 airliners before becoming captain of Airbus A330-300 in 1996, and captain of Boeing 777-200 in 1998.
His expertise and seniority saw him made an instructor and examiner for the 777 fleet in November 2007. His flying record for the 72 hours before the flight and the preceding 28-day cycle were well within the airline's specified limits.
Fariq Abdul Hamid
Mr Zaharie's co-pilot during the flight was 27-year-old First Officer Fariq Abdul Hamid. While he had gained around 2,700 hours of flight experience when MH370 went missing, the Boeing-777 was his first flight as a fully approved pilot - without another overseeing him.
Experts however have dismissed the significance of his experience, arguing that it would not have put the flight at risk, especially sat alongside senior Mr Zaharie. Officials say Mr Fariq spoke the final words to ground controllers in Malaysia before the plane vanished into Vietnamese airspace, saying "Alright, goodnight".
He reportedly uttered the chilling words 12 minutes after the first communication system was switched off, and two minutes before the final transponder was shut off. Meanwhile, the pilot was described to be religious as a Muslim and was serious about his career.
Mr Fariq joined the airline as a cadet in 2007 before completing his training at a flight school on the island of Langkawi. He became a second officer for Boeing 737-400 airliners before being promoted to first officer in 2010. He was later promoted to first officer of the Airbus A330-300 in 2012, before a further promotion to the B777-200 the next year.
The BBC reported that he was due to marry a fellow pilot from another airline.
*Why Planes Vanish: The Hunt for MH370 airs tonight at 8pm on BBC One
Read more similar news:
Comments:
comments powered by Disqus
