USA/MALAYSIA: Close friend of Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah defends the Malaysian Airlines pilot's lengthy professional history record

Record ID: 842902

  • Title: USA/MALAYSIA: Close friend of Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah defends the Malaysian Airlines pilot's lengthy professional history record
  • Date: 18th March 2014
  • Summary: SEPANG, SELANGOR STATE, MALAYSIA (MARCH 17, 2014) (REUTERS) MALAYSIA PILOTS ENTERING KLIA INTERNATIONAL TERMINAL MALAYSIA PILOTS INSIDE AIRLINER TERMINAL MALAYSIA PLANE TAXING ON KLIA INTERNATIONAL TERMINAL MALAYSIA FLEET ON TARMAC
  • Embargoed: 2nd April 2014 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Usa, Malaysia
  • City:
  • Country: Usa Malaysia
  • Topics: Crime,Disasters / Accidents / Natural catastrophes,Transport
  • Reuters ID: LVABK07QWY4JOJTZCW2J8H7C24FO
  • Aspect Ratio:
  • Story Text: A long-time friend of Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah defended the Malaysia Airlines pilot's flying record and his personal character on Monday (March 17).
    Chris Nissen was working as an industry technology consultant for Malaysia Airlines when he became neighbours with Zaharie.
    The two who lived in the same neighbourhood in Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur for six years struck up a friendship.
    Fifty-three-year-old Zaharie was the captain of Malaysian Airines Flight MH370 which vanished from civilian air traffic control screens off Malaysia's east coast less than an hour after taking off from Kuala Lumpur on a scheduled flight to Beijing on Saturday (March 8).
    The flight was carrying 12 crew and 227 mainly Chinese passengers.
    Investigators piecing together patchy data from military radar and satellites believe that someone turned off aircraft's identifying transponder and ACARS system, which transmits maintenance data, and turned west, crossing the Malay Peninsula and following a commercial aviation route towards India.
    What happened next is less certain. The plane may have flown for another six hours or more after dropping off Malaysian military radar about 200 miles northwest of Penang Island.
    But the satellite signals that provide the only clues were not intended to work as locators. The best they can do is place the plane in one of two broad arcs - one stretching from Laos up to the Caspian, the other from west of Indonesia down to the Indian Ocean off Australia - when the last signal was picked up.
    Malaysian police have searched the homes of the Zaharie and first officer, Fariq Abdul Hamid, 27, both in middle-class suburbs of Kuala Lumpur close to the international airport.
    Among the items taken for examination was a flight simulator Zaharie had built in his home.
    One source familiar with U.S. inquiries said the pilots were being studied because of the technical knowledge needed to disable the aircraft's communications systems.
    Malaysian officials said on Monday (March 17) that suicide by the pilot or co-pilot was a line of inquiry, although they stressed that it was only one of the possibilities under investigation.
    But Nissen said this was totally out of Zaharie's character.
    "It is hard to believe that he would've, ahh..., did... to do anything like that, you know, like the speculation of pilot suicide or pilot highjacking, I can't just imagine with his character and what we knew of him, it wouldn't make any sense that he would have anything to do with any sort of deliberate action on his part. You know, whether he, you know... His piloting skills would be great and I think he would do anything he could to preserve the lives of his passengers, the cargo, the property of Malaysia Airlines. He was very proud of that company and he would've done anything for them," Nissen told U.S. NBC programme.
    Nissen says Zahirie bought the simulator several years ago to not only keep up with his skills and training but also to entertain his young family and friends.
    According to Nissen, Zahirie was not an extremist but a "great guy" and a Malaysia Airlines company man.
    "He was hired by Malaysia Airlines directly out of school, trained by Malaysia Airlines. He was one of the original triple-seven fleet captains, you know. He's a great guy, you know, just a great pilot. You know, I think a test to his experience was 18-thousand hours of flying. Great career," said Nissen.
    Intensive background checks of everyone aboard a missing Malaysian jetliner have so far failed to find anyone with a known political or criminal motive to crash or hijack the plane, Western security sources and Chinese authorities said.
    Malaysia said it had conferred with the U.S. and Chinese ministers on the search for Flight MH370, an unprecedented 26-nation operation that now spans Asia from the Caspian Sea to the southern Indian Ocean.
    Investigators are convinced that someone with deep knowledge of the Boeing BA.N 777-200ER and commercial navigation diverted the jet perhaps thousands of miles off course.
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