Missing jet pilots had firm community, family ties

The pilots of the missing Malaysia Airlines passenger jet were a middle-aged family man passionate enough about flying to build his own simulator and a 27-year-old contemplating marriage who had just graduated to the cockpit of the Boeing 777.
As speculation intensified today that the plane might have been hijacked by a person or people with aviation skills, a picture began to emerge of the two men whose actions will be a focus of the investigation.
Police have said they are looking at the psychological background of the pilots, their family life and connections as one line of inquiry into flight MH370's disappearance, but there is no evidence linking them to any wrongdoing.

The search for the Boeing 777 with 239 people on board has been widened westward from the Gulf of Thailand toward the Indian Ocean.
A United States official has told The Associated Press that the plane sent signals to a satellite for about four hours after it lost radar contact a week ago.
The airliner vanished less than an hour into a 6-hour flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing early on March 8.

Online, Malaysians have rushed to defend the reputations of the pilots, Zaharie Ahmad Shah, 53, and Fariq Abdul Hamid. Both men were described to The Associated Press as respectable and community minded.

Details of their backgrounds have emerged from interviews with neighbours, Malaysia Airlines staff, a religious leader and from social networks and news reports in Malaysia and Australia.
Fariq is a "good boy, a good Muslim, humble and quiet," said Ahmad Sarafi Ali Asrah, the head of a community mosque about 100 metres from Fariq's two-story home in a middle class neighbourhood on the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur.
He described Fariq's parents as distraught and the community solidly behind them, supporting the family in prayers.
"His father still cries when he talks about Fariq. His mother too," said Ahmad Sarafi.
Fariq, the son of a high-ranking civil servant in Selangor state, joined Malaysia Airlines in 2007. With just 2,763 hours of flight experience he had only recently started co-piloting the sophisticated Boeing 777.

Fariq's superior, Zaharie, joined Malaysia Airlines in 1981 and has more than 18,000 flight hours.
His Facebook page shows an avid aviation enthusiast, who flew remote-controlled aircraft, posting pictures of his collection which included a lightweight twin-engine helicopter and an amphibious aircraft.
Born in northern Penang state, the bald-headed captain and grandfather is also an enthusiastic handyman and proud home cook.