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<\/p>\nZAHARIE Amad Shah was the pilot of doomed flight MH370 which shocked the world.<\/p>\n
Nine years on, still no closer to knowing what happened to the Malaysian Airlines plane, we look in more depth at the man at the eye of the media storm.<\/p>\n
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Shah, born July 31, 1961, was described as a veteran pilot who joined Malaysia Airlines in 1981.<\/p>\n
The 53-year-old had been an airline pilot with Malaysia Airlines for 33 years, and had 18,423 hours of flight time.<\/p>\n
He had been a B777 captain for 16 years, and had 8,659 hours on that aeroplane type.<\/p>\n
Because of his good track record and seniority, he had been designated as a Type Rating Instructor, and Type Rating Examiner, on the B777.<\/p>\n
He was recognised as an accomplished and well-respected pilot who had no blemishes on his record.<\/p>\n
He was married and had three children.<\/p>\n
Zaharie, a passionate cook and keen fisherman, lived with his wife in a luxury gated community where he was said to have built his own flight simulator.<\/p>\n
In the wake of the plane's disappearance, rumours surfaced claiming his wife had moved out of their home.<\/p>\n
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Fellow pilot and life-long friend of Zaharie Ahmad Shah, 53, who was in command of the Boeing 777 the night it vanished, claims Zaharie locked the co-pilot out of cockpit then crashed the plane in a murder-suicide.<\/p>\n
Now, a fellow 777 captain has said he has reluctantly concluded that his close friend deliberately crashed the plane.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt doesn\u2019t make sense. It\u2019s hard to reconcile with the man I knew. But it\u2019s the necessary conclusion,\u201d the unnamed pilot\u00a0told The Atlantic.<\/p>\n
As a senior officer and examiner it would have been easy to divert co-pilot Fariq Abdul Hamid, 27, out of the cockpit and then lock the door, the pilot said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll he had to say was \u2018Go check something in the cabin,\u2019 and the guy would have been gone,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The fellow pilot speculated that the mental state of Shah\u2019s could have been a contributing factor to his decision.<\/p>\n
Married captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah, 53, sent 26-year-old sisters, Lan Qi Hui and\u00a0Qi Min Lan messages, begging them to come to Kuala Lumpur.<\/p>\n
His 97 Facebook messages have been revealed as\u00a0psychologists claim he was "self-destructive".<\/p>\n
He sent the\u00a0Malaysian twin sisters sexually suggestive messages.<\/p>\n
On one occasion he commented under a picture of Qi Min Lan in a bathrobe with the comment: "Just showered?"<\/p>\n
He repeatedly asked the girls when they were coming to his hometown, despite being ignored.<\/p>\n
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Zaharie also used his Facebook to call Malaysian\u00a0prime minister Najib Razak a "moron".<\/p>\n
He also slammed the\u00a0government which owned the airline he flew for.<\/p>\n
Zaharie urged his followers: "There is a rebel in each and every one of us. Let it out!"<\/p>\n
Aviation expert Geoffrey Thomas said he should have been fired for his political rants.<\/p>\n
He told Australia's\u00a0Daily Telegraph:\u00a0"It should have raised serious alarm bells with the airline that you have someone flying who has such strong anti-government views.<\/p>\n
"If a Qantas pilot did something like that, he would be spoken to and grounded."<\/p>\n
The co-pilot was\u00a0Fariq Abdul Hamid, 27, who was on his first flight on a 777 as a fully approved first officer.<\/p>\n
He had flown five times before with a "check co-pilot" overseeing him.<\/p>\n
But he had\u00a02,763 hours experience flying other jets before moving to the larger aircraft.<\/p>\n
Fariq was reportedly planning to marry his girlfriend.<\/p>\n
Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370\u00a0took off from Kuala Lumpur and was heading to Beijing with 239 people on board.<\/p>\n
Passengers included Chinese calligraphers, a couple on their way home to their\u00a0young sons after a long-delayed honeymoon\u00a0and a construction worker who hadn't been home\u00a0in a year.<\/p>\n
But at 12.14am on\u00a0March 8, 2014, Malaysia Airlines lost contact with\u00a0MH370 close to Phuket island in the Strait of Malacca.<\/p>\n
Before that,\u00a0Malaysian authorities believe the last words heard from the plane, from either the pilot or co-pilot, was "Good night Malaysian three seven zero".<\/p>\n
Satellite "pings" from the aircraft suggest it continued flying for around seven hours when the fuel would have run out.<\/p>\n
Experts have calculated the most likely crash site around 1,000 miles west of Perth, Australia.<\/p>\n
But a huge search of the seabed failed to find any wreckage – and there are\u00a0a number of alternative theories as to its fate.<\/p>\n
Captain Ross Aimer, a former United Airlines pilot, believes lithium-ion batteries in the cargo of the plane ignited before setting the plane on fire.<\/p>\n
The fire could have then spread killing both the pilot and co-pilot before they had a chance to save the aircraft.<\/p>\n
It has recently been claimed the engine of the plane has been found in the Cambodian jungle.<\/p>\n
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