Missing Malaysian airliner: It was CO-PILOT who said 'all right, good night', not the captain, officials disclose as friends pay tribute to 27-year-old
- Footage captures Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah being frisked by security
- He is followed by Fariq Hamid, co-pilot of the 777, who was also searched
- Shah is 'fanatical' supporter of country's opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim
- His wife and children moved out of family home day before plane vanished
- Two pilots did not request to fly together, Malaysian police reveal
- Friends of Hamid describe him as mild-mannered and a brilliant pilot
- YouTube tribute to Captain Shah describes him as 'loving and generous'
The final words spoken from the cockpit of the missing Malaysia Airlines flight came from the co-pilot, not the captain, officials revealed.
It had been reported that a casually spoken 'all right, good night' came from Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah, but Malaysian officials disclosed that it was actually said by 27-year-old Fariq Abdul Hamid, described by friends as mild-mannered and with a bright future ahead of him.
The seemingly innocuous phrase was spoken to air traffic controllers after a maintenance computer that relays data on the plane's status was disabled.
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Captured: Airport security CCTV of Zaharie Ahmad Shah, pilot of Malaysia Boeing 777 Airlines flight
Meanwhile, footage emerged showing the aircraft's pilots walking through security for the final time before take-off.
CCTV captured Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah, pilot of the Boeing 777 flight, being frisked whilewalking through security at Kuala Lumpar International Airport.
He is then joined by co-pilot Fariq Hamid who is also searched before the pair walk onto the plane.
The final words from the aircraft gave no indication anything was wrong even though one of the plane's communications systems had already been disabled, adding to suspicions that someone who knew the controls was involved in the disappearance.
Officials also said today that it is possible the aircraft could have landed and transmitted a satellitesignal from the ground.
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.
day before the plane went missing.
Some senior US officials believe it is possible the plane was taken as part of a ‘dry run’ for a future terrorist attack – in order to find out whether a plane can be hidden from radar and satellites.
CCTV footage captures Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah, pilot of the Boeing 777 flight, being frisked while walking through security at Kuala Lumpar International Airport
While investigators visited the homes of Shah and Hamid, it was also revealed by Malaysian police that the two pilots did not request to fly together, reported the Wall Street Journal.
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.
If the plane was intact and had enough electrical power in reserve, it would be able to send out a radar 'ping'.
After a missing half hour, ‘all right, good night' was spoken to air traffic controllers rather than the usual sign-off of ‘Roger and out’.
Whoever was talking did not mention a problem with the flight, suggesting an attempt was made to mislead ground control.
Footage: Co-pilot Fariq Hamid who was also searched before the pair walked onto the plane
Co-pilot Fariq Hamid is frisked by security at Kuala Lumpar International Airport before the flight took off
Around 14 minutes later the transponder – which sends out an identifying signal – was switched off and shortly afterwards the aircraft turned sharply to head back across the Malaysian peninsula.
'TERRAIN MASKING': HOW TO USE LANDSCAPE TO KEEP OUT OF SIGHT
The missing jet was deliberately dropped to a height of just 5,000ft to avoid commercial radar after it turned away from its routine path, it was claimed today.
Investigators have told Malaysian newspaper the New Straits Times that the Boeing 777 could have flown low over the Bay of Bengal, avoiding radar in a number of countries.
On military radar, investigators told the New Straits Times, the aircraft would have registered as just a blip. But the stresses on the 200 ton aircraft flying at that height would have been enormous and highly dangerous for the structure.
Investigators said they believed whoever was controlling the plane had flown close to land, or over it, in what is known as 'terrain masking' - using the surrounding landscape to keep out of sight of radar.
The technique is used by pilots of military aircraft to fly to their targets without detection - but it is dangerous and in the dark it would be extremely difficult, calling on great skills.
Maneuvering a large aircraft like the 777 in this way would be a feat judged to be almost impossible, but investigators say they are certain that the aircraft did drop to 5,000ft or possibly lower, in what is thought to be an attempt to avoid commercial radar.
As authorities examined a flight simulator that was confiscated from the home of one of the pilots and dug through the background of all 239 people on board and the ground crew that serviced the plane,
They also were grappling with the enormity of the search ahead of them, warning they needed more data to narrow down the hunt for the aircraft.
The Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 took off from Kuala Lumpur at around 12.40am on March 8, headed to Beijing.
On Saturday, Malaysia's government confirmed that the plane was deliberately diverted and may
have flown as far north as Central Asia, or south into the vast reaches of the Indian Ocean.
have flown as far north as Central Asia, or south into the vast reaches of the Indian Ocean.
Authorities have said someone on board the plane first disabled one of its communications systems - the Aircraft and Communications Addressing and Reporting System, or ACARS - at 1.07am.
Given the expanse of land and water that might need to be searched, the wreckage of the plane might take months - or longer - to find, or might never be located.
Establishing what happened with any degree of certainty will likely need key information, including cockpit voice recordings, from the plane's flight data recorders.
'The search was already a highly complex, multinational effort. It has now become even more difficult,' he said.
The search effort initially focused on the relatively shallow waters of the South China Sea and the
Strait of Malacca, where the plane was first thought to be.
Strait of Malacca, where the plane was first thought to be.
Minister of Transport Hishammuddin said he had asked governments to hand over sensitive radar and satellite data to try and help get a better idea of the plane's final movements.
The search area now includes 11 countries the plane might have flown over, Hishammuddin said, adding that the number of countries involved in the operation had increased from 14 to 25.
It has emerged that Fariq Abdul Hamid had his reputation called into question by a South African woman who accused him of inviting her to join him in the cockpit for a journey in 2011, in breach of security rules.
Timeline: The above graphic shows how the situation may have developed
Malaysia Airlines said it was ‘shocked’ by the reported security violation, but could not verify the claims.
But those who knew him have described the son of a top state civil servant as a mild-mannered young man with a bright piloting future who is reported to have been engaged to wed a woman he met in flight school nine years ago.
His fiancée, Captain Nadira Ramli, 26, flies for Malaysia-based budget carrier AirAsia - Malaysia Airlines' fierce rival - and is the daughter of a senior Malaysia Airlines pilot, local media reports said.
Probe: Police in Malaysia have searched the home of pilot Zaharie Ahmad Shah (left) and Fariq Abdul Hamid after officials confirmed the plane was taken over by a 'deliberate act'
On board: Student Firman Siregar, pictured centre with his family, was one of the 239 aboard Flight MH370
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
Fariq regularly visited his neighbourhood mosque outside Kuala Lumpur where he also attended occasional Islamic courses, said Ahmad Sharafi Ali Asrah, the mosque's imam or spiritual leader, who called him ‘a good boy’.
Fariq appeared in a CNN travel segment in February in which he helped fly a plane from Hong Kong to Kuala Lumpur.
It chronicled his transition to piloting the Boeing 777-200 after having completed training in a flight simulator.
CNN correspondent Richard Quest called Fariq's technique ‘textbook-perfect,’ according to the network's website.
The government has called on the public not to ‘jump to conclusions’ about the two men, saying they were not on record as asking to fly together on March 8.
Sympathetic tributes to them have poured out online with friends of Captain Shah posting a YouTube video that a contains a gallery of photographs of him and a soundtrack of Somewhere Over The Rainbow.
At the end of the video a message appears that reads 'loving, reflective, generous, cool, sporting, intelligent, supportive... the list goes on and on'.
Meanwhile, footage has emerged of Hamid in a training session a month before the Malaysian Airlines flight disappeared.
A journalist films the home of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 co-pilot Fariq Abdul Hamid in Shah Alam, near Kuala Lumpur
The final picture: The missing jet is pictured here in February this year above Polish airspace
CNN aviation expert Richard Quest filmed the 27-year-old who said he had 2,700 hours of flight experience.
When asked about flying, he told Mr Quest that he 'just loved it'. 'It was a wonderful experience, particularly flying the larger big triple 7 plane that we were onboard,' he said.
According to Quest, Hamid had carried out a 'textbook landing' on that day he was filmed.
Hamid joined the airline in 2007 and was flying with a much more experienced co-pilot Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah, 53, who began working for Malaysia Airlines in 1981 and had more than 18,000 hours of flying experience.
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