No wrongdoing by pilots of missing aircraft: Families
15 March 2014 5:56 AM IST
As speculation intensified on Friday that the plane might have been hijacked by a person or people with aviation skills, a picture began to emerge of the two men whose actions will be a focus of the investigation.
Police have said they are looking at the psychological background of the pilots, their family life and connections as one line of inquiry into flight MH370’s disappearance, but there is no evidence linking them to any wrongdoing.
The search for the Boeing 777 with 239 people on board has been widened westward from the Gulf of Thailand toward the Indian Ocean. A United States official has said that the plane sent signals to a satellite for about four hours after it lost radar contact a week ago. The airliner vanished less than an hour into a 6-hour flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing early on 8 March.
Online, Malaysians have rushed to defend the reputations of the pilots, Zaharie Ahmad Shah, 53, and Fariq Abdul Hamid. Both men were described as respectable and community minded. Details of their backgrounds have emerged from interviews with neighbors, Malaysia Airlines staff, a religious leader and from social networks and news reports in Malaysia and Australia.
Fariq is a ‘good boy, a good Muslim, humble and quiet,’ said Ahmad Sarafi Ali Asrah, the head of a community mosque about 100 meters from Fariq’s two-story home in a middle class neighborhood on the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur.
He described Fariq’s parents as distraught and the community solidly behind them, supporting the family in prayers. ‘His father still cries when he talks about Fariq. His mother too,’ said Ahmad Sarafi.
Police have said they are looking at the psychological background of the pilots, their family life and connections as one line of inquiry into flight MH370’s disappearance, but there is no evidence linking them to any wrongdoing.
The search for the Boeing 777 with 239 people on board has been widened westward from the Gulf of Thailand toward the Indian Ocean. A United States official has said that the plane sent signals to a satellite for about four hours after it lost radar contact a week ago. The airliner vanished less than an hour into a 6-hour flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing early on 8 March.
Online, Malaysians have rushed to defend the reputations of the pilots, Zaharie Ahmad Shah, 53, and Fariq Abdul Hamid. Both men were described as respectable and community minded. Details of their backgrounds have emerged from interviews with neighbors, Malaysia Airlines staff, a religious leader and from social networks and news reports in Malaysia and Australia.
Fariq is a ‘good boy, a good Muslim, humble and quiet,’ said Ahmad Sarafi Ali Asrah, the head of a community mosque about 100 meters from Fariq’s two-story home in a middle class neighborhood on the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur.
He described Fariq’s parents as distraught and the community solidly behind them, supporting the family in prayers. ‘His father still cries when he talks about Fariq. His mother too,’ said Ahmad Sarafi.
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