In what comes as a shocking revelation surrounding the mysterious disappearance and crash of the Malaysia Airline Flight MH370, it has been found that the plane's co-pilot was flying the Boeing 777 for the first time without a 'check co-pilot' monitoring him.
Under a standard agreement, a First Officer's first five flights in a new model of plane are done under the watchful eye of a 'check-co pilot'.
However, Malaysia Airlines has said that co-pilot Fariq Abdul Hamid, 27, had come through his initial outings in the 777 model with no issues and they don't see any problem with him, news.com.au reports.
The airline's chief executive Ahmad Jauhari Yahya further said that Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah, 53, was himself an experienced 777 examiner and Hamid was flying with an examiner.
Following the mysterious disappearance, Hamid and Shah have come under scrutiny, especially after investigators retrieved a homemade flight simulator from Shah's home, but nothing has been confirmed to implicate the two pilots.
Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak officially announced that the plane crashed into the southern Indian Ocean and there was no chance of having survivors in the freezing waters.
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The MH370 went missing on March 8th shortly after taking off from Kuala Lumpur enroute to Beijing and a desperate search spread over weeks led the authorities zeroing on the conclusion of a crash.
Authorities are now focusing their efforts to locate and retrieve the plane's black box before its time of sending 'pings' runs out after 30 days of impact.