- 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
The final words from the missing Malaysia Airlines flight were spoken after its communication equipment was disabled, it has been revealed, as footage emerged showing the aircraft's pilots walking through security for the final time before take-off.
Someone in the cockpit said 'all right, good night', after a maintenance computer that relays data on the plane's status was disabled.
CCTV captured Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah, pilot of the Boeing 777 flight, being frisked while walking through security at Kuala Lumpar International Airport.
Captured: Airport security CCTV of Zaharie Ahmad Shah, pilot of Malaysia Boeing 777 Airlines flight
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 satellite signal 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.
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, someone in the cockpit spoke to air traffic controllers for the final time, saying: ‘All right. Good night.’
The usual sign-off would have been ‘Roger and out’, but 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.
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.
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.
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.
The fact that they went dark separately is strong evidence that the plane's disappearance was
deliberate.
Today, Malaysian Defense Minister Hishammuddin Hussein said at a news conference that the final, reassuring words from the cockpit - 'All right, good night' - were spoken to air traffic controllers after the ACARS system was shut down.
Whoever spoke did not mention any trouble on board, seemingly misleading ground control.
Timeline: The above graphic shows how the situation may have developed
who spoke to air traffic controllers.
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 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.
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
'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.
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.
Meanwhile, footage has emerged of Hamid in a training session a month before the Malaysian Airlines flight disappeared.
Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak confirmed that the plane could have travelled, undetected, for a further seven hours
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
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.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2582146/Caught-CCTV-Pilots-doomed-Malaysian-Airlines-flight-walk-security-final-time-off.html#ixzz2wDGhPdzW
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