While on the surface the pair appeared to be normal – and according to most – likeable, police are now scrutinising the psychological background of both pilots, their family lives and their connections for any possible link to extremists or any motive for involvement in the flight's disappearance.
The suspicion of Captain Shah, a 53-year-old grandfather and father of three grown up children, was bolstered in profiles of him that highlighted his obsessive passion for aircraft – he even had his own airline flight simulator at home and flew model remote controlled planes as a hobby.
Captain Shah is a mild-mannered and caring social and political activist who raises money for the poor and loves his job so much that he badgers friends into using his flight simulator to share his pleasure.
His hobbies did not fit the more common profile of the Muslim terrorist – he was neither disaffected nor marginalised. He was a widely respected expert in his field, totting up over 18,000 miles in a three decade career that saw him pilot Boeing 737s, 777s and Airbus A300s. In his spare time he loved to watch the atheist lectures Richard Dawkins and the cross-dressing comedy of Eddie Izzard.
He had been a keen footballer at school, a promising science student and had trained as a pilot in the Philippines before joining Malaysia Airlines in 1981.
He had no financial difficulties, no obvious enemies, but devoted students as an instructor and simulator examiner. Mr Shah's co-pilot, 27-year-old Fariq Hamid, the son of a high-ranking civil servant, seems an equally unlikely terrorist. The son of a high-ranking civil servant in Selangor, he joined Malaysia Airlines in 2007 and had only just started co-piloting the Boeing 777.
He lived with his parents in a smart detached family house in Kuala Lumpur's Shah Alam middle class enclave, 40 minutes from the airport.
Mr Jantan said Mr Hamid's father was supremely proud of his son. "To be a pilot is a very high status job in Malaysia, like a doctor or lecturer," he said. But the family had left their home early on Saturday consumed with grief, he said. The strongest 'evidence' against him is the comments of a South African woman who told an Australian news channel that he had flirted with her and another woman in the cockpit during a flight from Phuket to Kuala Lumpur in 2011, when they smoked and posed for photographs.
Neither of the men fit the profile, which raises the possibility that there may have been passengers on the flight who knew even more about flying aeroplanes than Captain Shah – the ultimate "aviation geek".
American officials suggested on Saturday that three different pieces of signalling equipment had been disabled and that one of them was located outside the cockpit. The implication is that at least two people had collaborated to change the course of flight MH370 and make it and its crew and passengers disappear.
15/03/14 Dean Nelson, Kuala Lumpur, Malcolm Moore in Beijing and Patrick Sawer/The Telegraph, UK
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The suspicion of Captain Shah, a 53-year-old grandfather and father of three grown up children, was bolstered in profiles of him that highlighted his obsessive passion for aircraft – he even had his own airline flight simulator at home and flew model remote controlled planes as a hobby.
Captain Shah is a mild-mannered and caring social and political activist who raises money for the poor and loves his job so much that he badgers friends into using his flight simulator to share his pleasure.
His hobbies did not fit the more common profile of the Muslim terrorist – he was neither disaffected nor marginalised. He was a widely respected expert in his field, totting up over 18,000 miles in a three decade career that saw him pilot Boeing 737s, 777s and Airbus A300s. In his spare time he loved to watch the atheist lectures Richard Dawkins and the cross-dressing comedy of Eddie Izzard.
He had been a keen footballer at school, a promising science student and had trained as a pilot in the Philippines before joining Malaysia Airlines in 1981.
He had no financial difficulties, no obvious enemies, but devoted students as an instructor and simulator examiner. Mr Shah's co-pilot, 27-year-old Fariq Hamid, the son of a high-ranking civil servant, seems an equally unlikely terrorist. The son of a high-ranking civil servant in Selangor, he joined Malaysia Airlines in 2007 and had only just started co-piloting the Boeing 777.
He lived with his parents in a smart detached family house in Kuala Lumpur's Shah Alam middle class enclave, 40 minutes from the airport.
Mr Jantan said Mr Hamid's father was supremely proud of his son. "To be a pilot is a very high status job in Malaysia, like a doctor or lecturer," he said. But the family had left their home early on Saturday consumed with grief, he said. The strongest 'evidence' against him is the comments of a South African woman who told an Australian news channel that he had flirted with her and another woman in the cockpit during a flight from Phuket to Kuala Lumpur in 2011, when they smoked and posed for photographs.
Neither of the men fit the profile, which raises the possibility that there may have been passengers on the flight who knew even more about flying aeroplanes than Captain Shah – the ultimate "aviation geek".
American officials suggested on Saturday that three different pieces of signalling equipment had been disabled and that one of them was located outside the cockpit. The implication is that at least two people had collaborated to change the course of flight MH370 and make it and its crew and passengers disappear.
15/03/14 Dean Nelson, Kuala Lumpur, Malcolm Moore in Beijing and Patrick Sawer/The Telegraph, UK
