Malaysia Flight 370

Zaharie Ahmad Shah was a skilled veteran pilot who flew the Malaysian Airlines Flight 370. He joined the airline in 1981 (Davies 1). Shah was 53 years old and had been flying with Malaysia Airlines for 33 years and was a B777 captain for 16 years (1). He had a total of 18,423 hours of fly time and 8,659 hours on a B777-specific plane (1). The likelihood of MH370 crashing due to a mistake made by Shah is highly unlikely. 

Shah was a family man. He had a wife and two kids which he loved dearly (1). They all lived in a nice home in a gated community (1). He built his flight simulator in his home which he used often (1). He spent a lot of his free time in the flight simulator getting in more hours. Shah seemed to have all he wanted, so for him to throw it all away something had to be going on internally.

Although Shah seemed to have it all, he was unstable. His friends describe him as “lonely and sad” and “clinically depressed” (Simmons). His mental state plays a big role in the conspiracy of Shah intentionally crashing the plane. Zaharie's wife and daughter claimed he was “distracted and withdrawn” in the weeks before MH370 took its course (Murphy). His daughter Aishah Zaharie described him as retreating to a shell. She claimed: "He wasn’t the father I knew. He seemed disturbed and lost in a world of his own." (Murphy). Leading up to the flight, the time he spent in his flight simulator increased, this could've been him practicing or planning how to crash the plane successfully without a trace left behind. Zaharie Ahmad Shah and his wife, Faizah Khanum Mustafa Khan, had marital problems. Faizah told sources her husband shut her out and stopped talking to her weeks leading up to the fight (Murphy). Shah was offered help and counseling but ended up refusing every time. 

Zaharie Ahmad Shah was a self-destructive man. The 53-year-old man sent 26-year-old sisters messages begging them to come to Kuala Lumpur to see him (1). It was also recorded he sent them sexually suggestive messages (1). He used his social media to diss the government and important leaders. He used his Facebook to call the Malaysian Prime Minister a “moron” (1). Zaharie was anti-government and even urged his followers to be the same. He once posted a message for his followers saying “There is a rebel in each and every one of us. Let it out!" (1). Many think he should have been fired for his public rants. It creates a bad image of a person and is not good for business. "It should have raised serious alarm bells with the airline that you have someone flying who has such strong anti-government views,” says aviation expert Geoffry Thomas (1).

Zaharie had more going on than most people thought. Shah's sister said, “He stayed with Malaysia Airlines for 33 years, and recorded over 18,000 hours of flying time. No bad record, nothing untoward. He was just a few years from retirement. Do you think he would want to throw this all away?" People can become wrapped up in how they view a person and forget that everyone has inner struggles and battles that no one will ever truly know about. Shah undoubtedly dealt with inner struggles. It is possible the disappearance of Maylasian Airlines Flight 370 would've never happened if Zaharie Ahmad Shah had asked for help and spent time fixing the problems that were going on.