Malaysia Airlines pilot Zaharie Ahmad Shah made creepy comments to teen model
Comments on a teenage model’s social media account were just one red flag that the MH370 pilot wasn’t the happy family man he portrayed, so why does Malaysia refuse to point the finger of blame?
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It was 2.30am when Fuad Sharuji received a call at home.
As Malaysia Airlines crisis co-ordinator, he was accustomed to after-hours telephone advisories but this time the operations manager told him they had lost a plane, flight MH370 to Beijing.
“I felt something is seriously wrong so immediately I triggered a code red alert,” the British-educated engineer recalled this week of the March 8, 2014 wake up.
Focus of the aircraft’s whereabouts was South China Sea, its last known location and a rescue operation was launched but within days Malaysian military revealed it had tracked the aircraft doing a U-turn flying back over Malaysian airspace.
But according to Mr Sharuji still no one suspected or believed the captain of the flight Zaharie Ahmad Shah could have, would have, anything to do with what had happened.
“He’s a jovial person, very friendly guy, easily approachable, he’s also a good family man, a good father to his three children,” he said.
Mr Sharuji and his team may have believed that but according to the then Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott, those in the highest echelons of the Malaysian Government did not. From the outset – for reasons never actually explained – they believed the captain had orchestrated an unthinkable mass murder suicide.
It beggars belief then that the airline and Malaysia’s own air safety inquiry still dismiss suggestions the captain was involved, indeed in Malaysia’s inconclusive 1500-page report authorities surmised “unlawful interference by third party not ruled out”.
The question is why.
Is it a case of national pride in a government owned airline? Embarrassment over a litany of missed red flags over the emotional and psychological state of mind of the airline’s most senior captain? Or is it the case they simply don’t have proof to say anything either way?
In the weeks and days leading up to the MH370’s loss with all 227 passengers and 11 other crew on board, it has become clear Zaharie was a troubled man.
On the surface the 53-year-old married father of three, was devoted to his family and spending spare time on flight simulators.
But those close to him described infidelity with flight attendants and some close to him believing he was lonely and depressed. It had been reported at the time he been living alone in a second house the family owned.
His wife Faizah Khanum reportedly told Malaysian investigators he was a devoted husband but conceded he had recently become distracted and withdrawn from the marriage.
“He just retreated into a shell,” she reportedly told Kuala Lumpur police investigators describing the hours he would spend alone on his computer and flight simulator. “I found him distant and difficult to understand.”
According to his family he had no interest in attending marriage counselling as he became increasingly distant from his wife.
But everyone police interviewed concluded he was incapable of taking life, he was not that sort of person.
But the sort of person he was is not clear.
In 2016 it was revealed a deleted file in his simulator simulated flying into the Petronas Twin Towers, the tallest pair of buildings in the world.
Then there was the deleted flight file where he rehearsed flying the Boeing 777 into the middle of the Southern Indian Ocean, curiously where authorities believe MH370 lies.
Nothing unusual in these according to Mr Sharuji.
“You must also remember that there were 2700 flight simulations in his simulator and only a few of those 2700 end up in Southern Indian Ocean,” he said, adding he “absolutely disagreed” with suggestions it was a murder suicide.
“Nothing unusual, because it’s very common for pilots to practice ditching.”
When asked why not practice a ditch from an actual flight path or closer to the base from which he flies, Kuala Lumpur, he said “Well I do not know, I cannot explain why he chose Southern Indian Ocean of course.”
In the year prior to the tragedy Zaharie was a heavy user of social media, notably Facebook. In 2013 he posted 97 separate Facebook comments to the page of Penang-based model Qi Min Lan, also known as Jasmin Min, who turned 18 that year.
“Hi Princess,” wrote Zaharie. “When in KL?” he asked, but got no response. In other messages he called her “cute”, and “beautiful” and “sui lo”, Chinese slang for “Damn it”, as in “Damn it, you’re hot”. He also asked if she was taking a shower when the model was pictured in a bathrobe. He then began posting to Ms Qi Min’s twin Lan Qi Hui in the same vein.
There was also literally more than 100 other posted comments critical of the government of the day and specifically Prime Minister Najib Razak, somewhat unusual political commentary for a man flying for a conservative government’s national airline.
He was said to have had a close relationship with a woman aged in her early 30s. She denied it was sexual but for reasons unknown she broke their relationship off months before his final fatal flight. Despite this, two days before the flight she sent him a WhatsApp message. The contents of the message has never been revealed.
Mr Sharuji is aware of all these claims but dismisses them as just media twisting them for a sensational story.
In July 2016 former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull unexpectedly said it was “very likely that the captain planned this shocking event”. That was significant since Australia has never expressed that belief and suggested the government knew more than it was letting on. The Malaysian Government has also never admitted such a thing and indeed their investigators had exonerated the captain and went onto describe the possibility of “a third party” involved.
Now this week Mr Abbott conceded he was told at the outset, back in 2014, from the highest levels in the Malaysian government the MH370 loss was a mass murder-suicide. When asked if he had asked Malaysian counterparts why they believed that Mr Abbott said: “No, no, no when you’re dealing at this level, if you are told that something is the clear understanding, you don’t need to go into a vast amount of detail.
“My very clear understanding, from the very top levels of the Malaysian government is that from very, very early on here, they thought it was murder-suicide by the pilot.”
Malaysian Grace Nathan lost her mother Daisy on board the flight but she does not take Mr Abbott’s admission seriously. I find it hard to believe because it’s not supported by any evidence, even if the Malaysian government were to say that then, what did they base that off?” she asked.
When asked if she blamed Zaharie she replied: “While I’m open to the possibility it could have been ‘a’ pilot, I do not blame ‘the’ pilot.”
• News Corp Australia subscribers can watch Sky News documentary MH370 The Untold Story over six parts, accessed through the links below.
Originally published as Malaysia Airlines pilot Zaharie Ahmad Shah made creepy comments to teen model