WHEN Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 mysteriously vanished on March 8, 2014, attention quickly focused on the aircraft’s captain, Zaharie Ahmad Shah.
Here is everything you need to know about the Malaysian Airlines pilot at the eye of the media storm.
Refer to Caption Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah was the pilot of Malaysian Airlines flight MH370[/caption]
Who was Zaharie Amad Shah?
Shah, born July 31, 1961, was described as a veteran pilot who joined Malaysia Airlines in 1981.
The 53-year-old had been an airline pilot with the airline for 33 years and had 18,423 hours of flight time.
He had been a B777 captain for 16 years and had 8,659 hours on that aeroplane type.
Because of his good track record and seniority, he had been designated as a Type Rating Instructor, and Type Rating Examiner, on the B777.
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He was recognised as an accomplished and well-respected pilot who had no blemishes on his record.
He was married and had three children.
Zaharie, a passionate cook and keen fisherman, lived with his wife in a luxury gated community where he was said to have built his own flight simulator.
In the wake of the plane’s disappearance, rumours surfaced claiming his wife had moved out of their home.
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What was discovered about him after the crash?
A fellow pilot and life-long friend of Shah claims the pilot locked his co-pilot out of the cockpit and then crashed the plane in a murder-suicide.
It doesn’t make sense. It’s hard to reconcile with the man I knew. But it’s the necessary conclusion.”
The unnamed pilot told The Atlantic
The pilot told The Atlantic that as a senior officer and examiner it would have been easy to divert co-pilot Fariq Abdul Hamid, 27, out of the cockpit and then lock the door.
The fellow pilot speculated that the mental state of Shah could have been a contributing factor to his decision.
Aviation expert Larry Vance, also stated the crash could have been murder-suicide.
He claimed that the pilot or co-pilot made the decision “to take it to a remote part of the ocean and make it disappear forever”.
According to the Independent Group that has worked on the case, “troubled and lonely” Captain Shah deliberately killed all 238 on board the jet by flying to 40,000ft to depressurise the cabin and suffocating the passengers.
Psychologists claimed the pilot was “self-destructive” after he sent 26-year-old sisters, Lan Qi Hui and Qi Min Lan messages, begging them to come to Kuala Lumpur.
He sent the Malaysian twin sisters sexually suggestive messages.
On one occasion he commented under a picture of Qi Min Lan in a bathrobe with the comment: “Just showered?”
He repeatedly asked the girls when they were coming to his hometown, despite being ignored.
Zaharie also used his Facebook to call Malaysian prime minister Najib Razak a “moron”.
He also slammed the government which owned the airline he flew for.
Zaharie urged his followers: “There is a rebel in each and every one of us. Let it out!”
Aviation expert Geoffrey Thomas said he should have been fired for his political rants.
He told Australia’s Daily Telegraph: “It should have raised serious alarm bells with the airline that you have someone flying who has such strong anti-government views.
“If a Qantas pilot did something like that, he would be spoken to and grounded.”
Who was the co-pilot?
The co-pilot was Fariq Abdul Hamid, 27, who was on his first flight on a 777 as a fully approved first officer.
He had flown five times before with a “check co-pilot” overseeing him.
But he had 2,763 hours of experience flying other jets before moving to the larger aircraft.
Fariq was reportedly planning to marry his girlfriend.
What are some of the theories about the Malaysia Airlines flight?
Vladimir Putin
Some feared Russian president Vladimir Putin was involved in the hijacking of MH370.
US Science writer Jeff Wise claimed Putin “spoofed” the plane’s navigation data so it could fly unnoticed into Baikonur Cosmodrome so he could “hurt the West”.
US shootout
French ex-airline director Marc Dugain accused the US military of shooting down the plane because they feared it had been hijacked.
A book called Flight MH370 – The Mystery also suggested that it had been shot down accidentally by US-Thai joint jet fighters during a military exercise and covered it up.
Suicide
Malaysia police chief Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar suggested the disappearance could have been the result of a suicide.
He claimed someone on board could have taken out a large life insurance package before getting on the plane, so they could treat their family or pay back the money they owed.
In hiding?
Historian and writer Norman Davies suggested MH370 could have been remotely hacked and flown to a secret location as a result of sensitive material being carried aboard the jet.
Cracks in the plane
Malaysia Airlines found a 15-inch crack in the fuselage of one of its planes, days before MH370 disappeared.
The Federal Aviation Administration insists it issued a final warning two days before the disappearance.
But the Daily Mirror claimed the missing jet “did not have the same antenna as the rest of the Boeing 777s” so it did not receive the warning.
The pilot planned the incident
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull unexpectedly said it was “very likely that the captain planned this shocking event”.
He claimed the pilot wanted to “create the world’s greatest mystery”.
Another theory claimed that he hijacked his own plane in protest of the jailing of then-Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim, and as a way to destabilise the corrupt government of Najib Razak.
Another seemingly far-fetched idea said the pilot had deliberately crashed the plane to cover his track as he had parachuted out of the plane so he could spend the rest of his life with his girlfriend who was waiting in a boat in the sea.
North Korea took the plane
In the wake of the incident, South Korea noted that North Korea nearly took out a Chinese plane which had 220 passengers on board, on March 5, 2014.
Some fear Pyongyang shot the plane down, but others believe it was hijacked and diverted into the communist nation.
Victims mobile phones ringing
One theory claims that because many relatives were able to hear a ringing tone for up to four days after the crash so the doomed jet could not have smashed into the Indian Ocean.
Nineteen families have all claimed the devices of their loved ones rang for up to four days after the jet went missing.
However, wireless analysts claim that phone firms sometimes use a phantom ringing sound when the device is not active, the Daily Star reports.
Crashed in the Cambodian jungle
In September 2018, British video producer Ian Wilson claimed to have found the missing aircraft using Google Maps.
Despite millions being spent on the search to locate the wreckage, the Brit sleuth believes he has found the jet in a mountainous area of the Cambodian jungle.
In response, the Chinese government used observation company Space View to focus in on the high-altitude area on the outskirts of Phnom Penh.
However, the firm claims there was no sign of any plane, least of all the Malaysian Airlines aircraft which has been missing since March 2014.
An MH370 sleuth has claimed that locals in Cambodia told him they saw a plane believed to be the doomed Malaysia Airlines flight crashing in the jungle.
The plane was heading for Kazakhstan
If the jet was flying north then possible locations could stretch as fast as the border between Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan to Thailand.
Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak originally asked the Kazakhstan leader Nursultan Nazarbayev to set up a search operation in the country but this quickly got sidelined as the rescue efforts focused on the Indian Ocean.