Malaysia chose to ignore MH370 captain’s extreme behaviour

PEOPLE don’t expect pilots to be robots, but nor should they be political activists with a bone to pick, as MH370’s Zaharie Amhad Shah has proven himself to be, writes Paul Toohey.

THE devil makes work for idle hands. Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah’s hands were idle too often.

The Malaysia Airlines pilot’s downtime online pursuit of younger women and his compulsive anti-government postings show a man who was reckless on social media to the point he should have been excommunicated from the cockpit.

MORE: MH370 captain’s secret obsession

\Captain Zaharie was reckless on social media before he died. Picture: Supplied.

It is understandable that Zaharie was frustrated with deposed prime minister, Najib Razak, this year voted out of government and now facing charges of robbing his country blind.

However, Zaharie’s incessant use of angry and sleazy social media in the year before he piloted missing flight MH370 showed he was losing self-awareness.

MH370 pilot social media posts.

The public don’t expect airline pilots to be robots. But nor do they want them to be political activists, calling the prime minister a “moron” and urging citizens to rise against the government.

Zaharie’s penchant for hanging round Facebook sites of pretty (much) younger women is as disturbing as it is revealing.

As clinical psychologist and internet-behaviour expert Vasileios Stravopoulos told News Corp, he did it in plain view, using his name and photo, commenting on the site of a young Malaysian model 97 times.

A post on model Qi Min Lan's facebook page. Picture: Facebook

It was, he said, “excessive” and “self-destructive” behaviour. Dr Stravopoulos said Zaharie seemed to be inviting others to find him out — almost as though he was willing a crisis upon himself.

This view was supported by one of the world’s leading aviation psychologists, UK-based Paul Dickens, whose job is to assess the mental health of commercial pilots — a growing industry after the 2015 Germanwings-suicide-by-pilot.

Mr Dickens said had he assessed Zaharie, with knowledge of his Facebook activity, he would have gone directly to Malaysia Airlines and raised a red flag. He described Zaharie’s postings as “obsessional behaviour mixed with recklessness”.

These experts are studious observers of human behaviour. Their job is ultimately to save lives — whether of the afflicted individual or the people in their ambit, such as airline passengers.

The Malaysian government chose to ignore evidence of Zaharie’s extreme online behaviour in its supposedly conclusive July report into MH370.

It also said there were “no unusual activities” relating to Zaharie plotting a course to the southern Indian Ocean on his home flight simulator, directly to the search area, six weeks before MH370 was lost.

Malaysia is clear. Its only search is for denial.

Originally published as Malaysia chose to ignore MH370 captain’s extreme behaviour