Wednesday, March 12, 2014

Airline probing report 2 visited cockpit

Kuala Lumpur: A co-pilot at the controls of the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 invited a South African tourist and her friend into the cockpit where he smoked, took photos and entertained the pair during a previous international flight.
Malaysia Airlines says it is investigating an Australian TV report that the co-pilot on its missing flight had invited two women to stay in the cockpit for a flight two years ago.
Jonti Roos, told the show  "A Current Affair" that she was invited into the cockpit along with her friend Jaan Maree, and described details of the encounter.
The programme aired multiple still photographs from Roos that showed the women inside the cockpit and the pilots apparently working the plane's controls.
The airline said late Tuesday it wouldn't comment on the report until its investigation into it is complete.
Roos said Fariq Abdul Hamid and the second pilot talked to her and her friend in the cockpit during the entire one-hour flight in December 2011 from Phuket, Thailand, to Kuala Lumpur.
Roos didn't immediately reply to a message sent to her via Facebook.
Mr Hamid had identified the tourists in the boarding queue at Phuket airport in December 2011. As they took their seats on the aircraft, a flight steward approached the women and invited them to join the pilots in the cockpit.
Ms Roos described how she and Ms Maree sat in two spare jump seats for the whole journey, including take-off and landing, described by Australian media as a "worrying lapse of security."
11/03/14 Gulf News
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