Malaysia Airlines: The pilots of the missing plane; involved in ‘deliberate action?’
March 15, 2014 — Updated 1443 GMT (2243 HKT)
Who are the missing Flight 370 pilots?
Source: (CNN)
“All right, good night.”: Those are the last words heard from the cockpit of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, said Zulazri Mohd Ahnuar, Malaysian civil aviation officer.
Who said them? Was it the captain or his first mate? Or someone else in the cockpit with them?
Since MH 370 went missing Saturday, there have been more questions than answers, including about the pilots.
Police search pilot’s home
Did the pilot have a plan?
What happened in the cockpit of MH370?
Someone may have kept aviating, but either they couldn’t — or wouldn’t — communicate.
This is what we know about the 53-year-old pilot captain and his 27-year-old first mate.
Capt. Zaharie Ahmad Shah
Police have been outside his Malaysia home every day since the plane vanished, a source told CNN. But they have not gone inside.
If they did, they might find a flight simulator there. In a YouTube video he apparently posted, Zaharie can be seen sitting in front of one.
And in a German online forum for simulator enthusiasts, X-Sim.de, there is a post from November 2012 in his name that says he built it himself.
“About a month ago I finish assembly of FSX and FS9 with 6 monitors.” The message was signed Capt. Zaharie Ahmad Shah BOEING 777 MALAYSIA AIRLINES.
FSX and FS9 are over-the-counter flight simulator games made by Microsoft. On Friday, the CEO of Malaysia Airlines said that everyone is allowed to pursue their hobbies.
Zaharie, a pilot with 18,365 flight hours under his belt, is reportedly also a flight instructor. On the same YouTube channel, Zaharie gives workman’s tips on tinkering with a refrigerator and an air conditioner.
CNN cannot verify the authenticity of the social media posts.
1st Officer Fariq Ab Hamid
CNN’s aviation correspondent Richard Quest once visited MH 370’s 1st Officer Fariq Ab Hamid in a Malaysia Airlines cockpit, when he was training. Quest watched him land the plane under supervision of a senior pilot in February.
The captain described Fariq’s landing as textbook perfect.
Fariq joined Malaysia Airlines in 2007. He has 2,763 flying hours behind him and was transitioning to the Boeing 777-200 after finishing training in a flight simulator.
As with Zaharie, not much is known to the public about Fariq. But Quest was not the only guest who had joined him in the cockpit.
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Expert: Mechanical failure not a factorPassenger Jonti Roos got an invitation to check out the cockpit during a flight from Thailand to Malaysia — one that Fariq was flying with another pilot.
She took photos and said Farid and his colleague smoked in the cockpit. After MH 370’s disappearance, she reported her experience to journalists.
Malaysia Airlines was aghast. “We are shocked by these allegations,” the airline said.
Such a practice would be illegal on U.S. carriers after the September 11, 2001, terror attacks, but not necessarily so on international ones, Quest said.
Exploring the possibilities
Does Roos’ story open up the possibility that a third or fourth person could have joined Zaharie and Fariq in the cockpit?
Like most everything surrounding flight MH 370, that’s yet unknown. But someone apparently did something.
Not long after the flight took off from Kuala Lumpur and the voice signed off, communications systems were disabled, and the plane’s transponder was turned off, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak said Saturday.
That last device is situated between the pilots and can be shut off with a twist of the wrist. For a pilot to turn it off would seem reckless because the information it transmits gives the plane vital protection. It helps people on the ground locate the plane.
Someone would have to know how to do it and also know the plane would lose that protection.
And the apparent lack of visibility on radar? “Airline pilots are not trained for radar avoidance,” said aviation expert Keith Wolzinger, a former 777 pilot. They like to stay on the radar, because — again — it protects their plane.
Only military pilots, he said, are usually keen on avoiding radar.
The father of a passenger on the missing plane is hoping for an outcome that would sound shocking under normal circumstances.
“I hope the plane was hijacked, because then, at least, there is hope,” Li from Hebei Province said. He did not give his full name.
Li is waiting at a Beijing hotel with dozens of other passengers’ family members awaiting word on the fate of their loved ones.
“But if the worst happened then I will have no meaning in my life. This is my only son,” Li said.
As he walked away, he bent his head and cried.
Malaysian MH370 co-pilot entertained teenagers in cabin on earlier flight
Photographs of the co-pilot of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 have emerged showing him entertaining teenage tourists in an aircraft cockpit during a previous flight.
The images came to light on the day Malaysian officials said they were investigating potential “psychological problems” of the crew or passengers for possible reasons as to why the aircraft could have gone missing.
The first officer, Fariq Abdul Hamid, 27, invited two South African teenagers in to the flight cabin for the entirety of a flight in 2011 from Phuket to Kuala Lumpur. He and his colleague entertained the two girls, smoked cigarettes and posed for photographs with them.
Jonti Roos, who said she and a friend were once invited into the cockpit of a Malaysia Airlines flight by missing co-pilot Fariq Abdul Hamid. Photograph: FacebookJonti Roos, one of the passengers, told Australia’s A Current Affair: “They were actually smoking throughout the flight, which I don’t think they’re allowed to do.
“At one stage, they were pretty much turned around the whole time in their seats talking to us. They were so engaged in conversation that he [Hamid] took my friend’s hand, and he was looking at her palm and said, ‘your hand is very creased – that means you’re a very creative person’, and commented on her nail polish.”
The women were approached by an air steward as they took their seats on the flight and spent the whole of the one-hour trip, from takeoff to landing, in the cockpit with the two pilots.
Roos told the 9 Network programme she and her friend were picked out by Hamid as they waited to board the plane, and later were asked to have a night out in Kuala Lumpur in what Roos described as a “slightly sleazy” encounter.
In what is likely to be viewed as a damning reflection on Malaysian Airlines’ security practices, Roos said she had come forward with the information because so little was known about what had happened to flight MH370.
“I’m really not saying that I think the co-pilot was in the wrong with this flight at all,” she said. “It could have been absolutely anything. This is just the little bit of information that I have.”
Hamid joined Malaysia Airlines in 2007 as a first officer, and had clocked up 2,763 flying hours by the time of the disappearance. His captain on the MH370, Zaharie Ahmad Shah, 53, joined the airline in 1981, and had flown about 18,000 hours.
Shah was an “aviation tech geek” who spent his weekends at home going through drills on a Boeing 777 flight simulator and flying remote-controlled miniature aircraft, said colleagues.
His excellent track record with the airline has thrown doubt on pilot error as an explanation. “He knew everything about the Boeing 777,” said a colleague. “Something significant would have had to happen for Zaharie and the plane to go missing. It would have to be total electrical failure.”
Despite the potentially grave security lapse during Roos’s flight, the South African, who lives in Melbourne, said she believed the two pilots had been “very competent in what they were doing”.
“We wished they [would] stop smoking, because it is such a confined space. But you can’t exactly tell a pilot to stop smoking[that],” she added.
It was only by reading messages that friends and family had posted on Hamid’s Facebook wall that Roos realised he had been co-pilot on the MH370 flight.
“I was just completely shocked. I couldn’t believe it,” she said. “My heart really broke for them, and my heart broke for the family of the passengers. It’s just a really sad story.”
A statement issued by Malaysia Airlines said: “Malaysia Airlines has become aware of the allegations being made against First Officer, Fariq Ab Hamid which we take very seriously. We are shocked by these allegations.
“We have not been able to confirm the validity of the pictures and videos of the alleged incident. As you are aware, we are in the midst of a crisis, and we do not want our attention to be diverted.
“We also urge the media and general public to respect the privacy of the families of our colleagues and passengers. It has been a difficult time for them.
“The welfare of both the crew and passenger’s families remain our focus. At the same time, the security and safety of our passengers is of the utmost importance to us.”
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