PUBLISHED: | UPDATED:
An image
has emerged of the pilot of the missing Malaysia Airlines jet wearing a T-shirt
with a 'Democracy is Dead' slogan as it has been revealed he could have
hijacked the plane in an anti-government protest.
Captain
Zaharie Ahmad Shah, a father-of-three, was said to be a 'fanatical' supporter
of the country's opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim - jailed for homosexuality
just hours before the jet disappeared.
It has
also been revealed that the pilot's wife and three children moved out of the
family home the day before the plane went missing.
It comes
as FBI investigators say the
disappearance of MH370 may have been ‘an act of piracy’ and the possibility
that hundreds of passengers are being held at an unknown location has not been
ruled out.
Officials
also revealed that it is possible the aircraft could have landed and
transmitted a satellite signal from the ground. If the plane was intact and had
enough electrical power in reserve, it would be able to send out a radar
'ping'.
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Peter Chong (left) with best
friend Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah, pilot of the missing Malaysia Airlines
plane. He is pictured in a T-shirt with a Democracy is Dead slogan as police
investigate claims he could have hijacked the plane as an anti-government protest
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Sudden ascent and dive points to
cockpit takeover
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The final picture: The missing
jet is pictured here in February this year above Polish airspace
Captian
Shah was an ‘obsessive’ supporter of Ibrahim. And hours before the doomed flight
left Kuala Lumpur it is understood 53-year-old Shah attended a controversial
trial in which Ibrahim was jailed for five years.
Campaigners
say the politician, the key challenger to Malaysia’s ruling party, was the
victim of a long-running smear campaign and had faced trumped-up charges.
Police
sources have confirmed that Shah was a vocal political activist – and fear that
the court decision left him profoundly upset. It was against this background
that, seven hours later, he took control of a Boeing 777-200 bound for Beijing
and carrying 238 passengers and crew.
Yesterday,
Malaysian police searched his house in the upmarket Kuala Lumpur suburb of Shah
Alam, where he had installed a home-made flight simulator. But this newspaper
can reveal that investigators had already spent much of last week examining two
laptops removed from Shah’s home. One is believed to contain data from the
simulator
Confirming
rising fears, Malaysia’s prime minister Najib Razak announced yesterday that
MH370 was deliberately steered off course after its communication system was
switched off. He said it headed west over the Malaysian seaboard and could have
flown for another seven hours on its fuel reserves.
It is not
yet clear where the plane was taken, however Mr Razak said the most recent
satellite data suggests the plane could have been making for one of two
possible flight corridors. The search, involving 43 ships and 58 aircraft from
15 countries, switched from the South China Sea to the Bay of Bengal in the
Indian Ocean.
In
another dramatic twist early Sunday Indian officials however, said the search
was on hold until 'fresh search areas' were defined by Malaysia. It is unclear
what the reason was for the delay.
Data
showing the number of plausible runways where the plane could have touched down
- which need to be at least 5,000ft - offer a baffling number of potential
locations.
More...
According to a map drawn up by
U.S. radio station WNYC, there
are 634 locations which could fit, from Australia to the Maldives to Pakistan.
However,
the true number is likely to be even higher, as estimates of how far the plane
could have travelled have been increased since the calculations were carried
out.
US
investigators say faint ‘pings’ were being transmitted for several hours after
the flight lost contact with the ground.
Meanwhile,
military radar showed the jet climbed to 45,000ft – above its service limit –
which could have been a deliberate attempt to knock out the passengers and
crew.
Anwar
Ibrahim is a broadly popular democracy icon and former deputy prime minister
whose prosecution on a charge of sodomy is seen by many Malaysians as political
persecution.
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Investigation: Pilot Zaharie
Ahmad Shah, left, was a political activist who attended a tense trial on the
day of the flight, investigators believe. He was flying service MH370 alongside
Fariq Abdul Hamid, right, from whom investigators have been keen to deflect
suspicion
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Jailed: Malaysian opposition
leader Anwar Ibrahim leaving court in Putrajaya on March 7
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Hunt: Investigators have riaded
the houses of both pilots. Pictured is where co-pilot Hamid lives in an
upmarket Kuala Lumpur suburb
The raids
on Captain Shah’s home appeared stage-managed as a display of intent after the
Prime Minister said the focus of the investigation was now on ‘crew and
passengers’ as a result of the latest leads.
But
investigators have told the Mail on Sunday inquiries into the background of the
pilot actually began days earlier.
Malaysian
police, helped by FBI agents from the US, are looking into the political and
religious backgrounds of both Zaharie and his co-pilot. Zaharie’s home was
sealed off yesterday as police spent an hour inside.
However,
a senior investigation source said two laptops were taken from the property in
low-key visits by police early last week despite a series of denials by
officials that his home had been searched or raided.
One
laptop taken away is thought to contain data from the flight simulator while a
second contained little information. Zaharie’s personal laptop was not found,
and is thought to have been with him in the cockpit of the plane, the source
said.
Zaharie’s
co-workers have told investigators the veteran pilot was a social activist who
was vocal and fervent in his support of Ibrahim.
‘Colleagues
made it clear to us that he was someone who held strong political beliefs and
was strident in his support for Anwar Ibrahim,’ another investigation source
said. ‘We were told by one colleague he was obsessed with politics.’
In their
interviews, colleagues said Zaharie told them he planned to attend the court
case involving Anwar on March 7, just hours before the Beijing flight, but
investigators had not yet been able to confirm if he was among the crowd of
Anwar supporters at court.
Zaharie
is believed to be separated or divorced from his wife although they share the
same house, close to Kuala Lumpur’s international airport. They have three
children, but no family members were at home yesterday: only the maid has
remained there.
JAILED
FOR FIVE YEARS: MALAYSIA'S OPPOSITION LEADER
Anwar Ibrahim is a
broadly popular democracy icon and former deputy prime minister whose
prosecution on a charge of sodomy is seen by many Malaysians as political
persecution.
Campaigners say the politician, the key challenger to Malaysia’s
ruling party, was the victim of a long-running smear campaign and had faced
trumped-up charges.
Captain Shah, who is thought to have attended the trial in Putrajaya
hours before flying, is thought to be incensed by the verdict.
Co-workers have told investigators the veteran pilot was a social
activist who was vocal and fervent in his support of Ibrahim.
Investigators said: ‘We are looking into the theory that Zaharie’s
political beliefs may be a factor. There are huge sensitivities surrounding
this but we cannot afford not to pursue any angle brought to our attention.’
In the
days after Flight MH370 disappeared, Zaharie was affectionately described as a
good neighbour and an eccentric ‘geek’ who had a flight simulator at home
simply because he loved his work so much.
Malaysian
officials initially appeared keen not to direct any suspicion towards Zaharie
or his co-pilot, 27-year-old Fariq Abdul Hamid, who was last week revealed to
have invited two women passengers into the cockpit and smoked on an earlier
flight to Phuket.
But
evidence of the way the plane’s transponder and communication systems were
disabled and the way the plane was expertly flown over the Indian Ocean
apparently using navigational waypoints meant only a skilled aviator could have
been at the controls. Investigators were also baffled by why, if hijackers took
over the plane, there was no Mayday call or signal from the two pilots to say
the cockpit had been breached.
At
yesterday’s press conference, the suspicion over the pilot’s involvement
mounted as prime minister Najib Razak said that investigators had found
‘deliberate action’ on board the plane resulted in it changing course and
losing contact with ground crews.
As a
result of the new information, Malaysian authorities had ‘refocused their
investigation on crew and passengers aboard’, he said. Police sealed off the
area surrounding Zaharie’s home and searched the house shortly after the press
conference.
Mr Razak
said the new satellite evidence shows ‘with a high degree of certainty’ that
the one of the jet’s communications devices – the Aircraft and Communications
Addressing and Reporting System was disabled just before it had reached
the east coast of Malaysia. ACARS is a service that allows computers aboard the
plane to relay in-flight information about the health of its systems back to
the ground.
Shortly
afterwards, near the cross-over point between Malaysian and Vietnamese air
traffic controllers, the plane’s transponder, which emits an identifying
signal, was switched off or, less likely, failed.
According
to a military radar, the aircraft then turned and flew back over Malaysia
before heading in a north-west direction.
