The final words heard by Malaysian air traffic controllers from the cockpit of missing flight MH370 were ‘All right, good night’, it has been revealed.
One of the pilots is reported to have made the comment over radio transmission as the plane passed from Malaysian to Vietnamese airspace.
The flight is then said to have disappeared from radar screens following the comment. The news comes as the first photograph of pilot Zaharie Ahmad Shah has emerged.
Zaharie Ahmad Shah, a 53-year-old Malaysian, who was one of the pilots of the Malaysia Airlines plane that remains missing.
Indonesian Air Force personnel aboard an Indonesian Air Force military surveillance aircraft over the Malacca Strait as they search for the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370.
Malaysian civil aviation officials revealed the comment while speaking to passengers’ relatives and friends at a Beijing hotel, The Straits Times has reported.
The search for the jetliner, which vanished on a flight between Kuala Lumpur and Beijing early Saturday morning, was expanded further into the Andaman and South China Seas today, with authorities no closer to explaining what happened to the plane or the 239 people on board.
A senior Malaysia Airlines executive also said today that the airline has ‘no reason to believe’ that any actions by the crew caused the jetliner’s disappearance.
With no concrete evidence to explain the plane’s disappearance, authorities have not ruled out anything.
Police have said they were investigating whether any passengers or crew on the plane had personal or psychological problems that might shed light on the mystery, along with the possibility of a hijacking, sabotage or mechanical failure.
Hugh Dunleavy, the commercial director of Malaysia Airlines, said the captain in charge of the flight was a very seasoned pilot with an excellent record.
Police in Malaysia have said they had nine eyewitness reports of aircraft ‘noise and lights’ being seen in the north-east of the country, near the border with Thailand, after the plane’s last recorded sighting on civilian radar systems.
Chinese relatives of passengers aboard the missing flight wait for news at a hotel in Beijing, China.
Deputy Commander of Vietnam 918 Air Brigade Senior Lieutenant Nguyen Tri Thuc (right) during the search for the missing plane.
