Zaharie Ahmad Shah

Some Lesser Known Facts About Zaharie Ahmad Shah

• Zaharie Ahmad Shah was a Malaysian pilot who disappeared along with Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 on 8 March 2014. The flight was scheduled to travel from Kuala Lumpur International Airport to Beijing Capital International Airport, however, it failed to reach its intended destination.

• After completing his formal education at Penang Free School in Malaysia, Zaharie pursued a career in aviation. He joined Malaysia Airlines on 15 June 1981 as a Cadet Pilot under the sponsorship of Majlis Amanah Rakyat (MARA), a Malaysian government agency. Subsequently, Zaharie travelled to the capital of the Philippines, Manila, where he underwent ab-initio pilot training on completion of which he received a Commercial Pilot License and Instrument Rating (CPL & IR).

• Zaharie commenced airline flying in 1983 as a Second Officer with Malaysia Airlines, gaining his initial experience on the F27 aircraft. In 1985, he was promoted to the position of First Officer of the B737-400 aircraft. He held that role until October 1991. Zaharie later became captain of the B737-400; he served as the captain of the aircraft till 1996. He was then assigned to the A330-300 aircraft which he flew until September 1998. Following this, Zaharie was appointed as the captain of the B777-200 aircraft. In November 2007, he was appointed as a Type Rated Instructor (TRI) and Type Rated Examiner (TRE) for the B777-200 aircraft. He remained the captain of B777-200 until the day of the aircraft’s disappearance, i.e., 8 March 2014.

• On 7 March 2014, Zaharie Ahmad Shah signed in for duty at Kuala Lumpur International Airport in Malaysia. He was on board MH370 as the Pilot-in-Command (PIC) along with Fariq Abdul Hamid, who was the First Officer (FO), on 8 March 2014. The flight was scheduled to travel to Beijing Capital International Airport, China; however, it never landed. Despite various attempts by the Kuala Lumpur Air Traffic Control Centre (KL ATCC) and Ho Chi Minh Air Traffic Control Centre (HCM ATCC), the aircraft could not be tracked, making the authorities speculate that it had disappeared.

• A search and rescue mission was launched in Southeast Asia shortly after the disappearance of MH370; however, when the communication between Flight 370 and the Inmarsat satellite was analysed, the search team was relocated to the Southern Indian Ocean.

• The search operation spanned across the Gulf of Thailand, where the plane’s radar was last detected, and the Andaman Sea, where the military signal last picked it up. Despite repeated search missions and an enormous expenditure of resources, the location of the plane and its passengers remained a mystery. The search for Flight MH370 and its 239 passengers on board, including 12 crew members, was one of the most expensive searches in aviation history.

• On 29 January 2015, the disappearance of the Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 was declared to be an accident and its 239 passengers, including 12 crew members, were declared to be presumed dead by the Government of Malaysia. The Department of Civil Aviation (DCA) Director-General Azharuddin Abdul Rahman announced this at a media conference and said,
  

  It is therefore, with the heaviest heart and deepest sorrow that, on behalf of the Government of Malaysia, we officially declare Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 an accident in accordance with the Standards of Annexes 12 and 13 to the Chicago Convention and that all 239 of the passengers and crew on board MH370 are presumed to have lost their lives.” ^[5]CNN

  

• On 29 July 2015, some pieces of marine debris (also known as marine litter), believed to be remains of the missing flight, were discovered on the African coast and nearby Indian Ocean islands.
  

  

  The key pieces of the debris of MH370 were displayed during a ‘Day of Remembrance for MH370’ event in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in 2019.

  

• Zaharie Ahmad Shah loved flying radio-controlled aircraft models.

  

• He was a non-vegetarian and had a great passion for cooking. He often shared pictures of himself cooking on social media. He was particularly fond of noodle dishes.

  

• Zaharie Ahmad Shah was an active YouTuber. He used to post several videos about optimising the performance of household appliances. Zaharie liked the content created by an American YouTuber named Taras Kulakov, who goes by the name CrazyRussianHacker on his channel. His demonstrations such as cutting a bottle in half with fire and string won Zaharie’s admiration.

  

• Zaharie’s love for aviation extended beyond his professional duties. He had a passion for flying that prompted him to spend his leisure time on a self-made simulator. Using a basic setup comprising three computer monitors, a desktop computer, and flight controls, Zaharie modified the simulator to make it more realistic. He reportedly used it to fly virtual routes worldwide. During the investigation into the disappearance of Flight 370, Malaysian authorities seized the simulator, analyzing the data on its hard drive. The analysis revealed that Zaharie had simulated a flight path similar to the one believed to have been taken by Flight 370; however, the simulation did not provide conclusive evidence regarding the cause of the plane’s disappearance.

  

• Malaysian authorities suspected criminal activity during the investigation of MH370, causing a shift in their approach. They centred their criminal investigation around the cabin crew and pilots of the plane; however, later on, the police cleared all 239 passengers, which included 12 crew members, of any involvement in the case.

• Shah’s behaviour before boarding Flight 370 was reportedly unusual. According to the guards stationed outside Shah’s colony, he greeted them with a military-style salute instead of his customary Muslim salutation; moreover, he chose to drive himself to the airport in his personal BMW 5 series car instead of using the airline cab. His wife, Faizah Khanum Mustafa Khan, accompanied him on the drive to the airport and returned home alone a week after the disappearance of Flight 370 was suspected. ^[6]India Today

• There have been rumours and speculations about the alleged relationship between Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah and Malaysian politician Anwar Ibrahim, a former Deputy Prime Minister and opposition leader who was jailed on sodomy charges, which he claimed were politically motivated. According to some reports, Zaharie was a supporter of Anwar Ibrahim and was upset with his imprisonment, leading to his alleged involvement in the disappearance of Flight 370; however, Anwar Ibrahim, in an interview, denied any connection with Zaharie or any involvement in the disappearance of the aircraft. Following an investigation into this case, the Malaysian government denied any political motive behind the disappearance of Flight 370 as no concrete evidence was found during the investigation. ^[7]Daily Express

• A docuseries titled ‘MH370: The Plane That Disappeared 2023 ‘ was released on Netflix in 2023, shedding light on the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370. The documentary series premiered on the disappearance of the flight, i.e., on 8 March 2023.

  

11 April 2014 – Captain Flt. Lt. Tim McAlevey of the Royal New Zealand Air Force while flying a P-3 Orion in search for the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 over the Indian Ocean