Captain Abdul Manan Mansor, the vice-president of the Malaysian Pilots Association, said that he did not even speak to the Daily Mail or know Zaharie personally.
“I didn’t speak to Daily Mail, I didn’t say that Zaharie was psychologically unstable.
“You can disregard the entire article,” Abdul Manan was quoted as saying by local daily New Straits Times.
Pointing out the large number of pilots in the country, Abdul Manan said he did not know Zaharie’s family and would not have known if the 53-year-old pilot had troubles with his marriage.
“I don’t know Zaharie personally, there are so many pilots registered in Malaysia, it is not unusual for some of us to not cross paths,” he was quoted as saying in the NST report yesterday.
Last Saturday, the Daily Mail posted an article on its website with a sidebar quoting Abdul Manan and identifying him as the president of the Malaysian Pilots Association.
It cited Abdul Manan as pitching suicide as a theory, suggesting that Zaharie was to blame for Flight MH370’s disappearance that has dragged 26 nations into hunting for the plane, now into its 25th day.
Last Sunday, Zaharie’s daughter also accused the Daily Mail of “making up” an article which quoted her as allegedly saying that her father was “disturbed” before the MH370 flight.
“Dear Daily Mail, You should consider making movies since you are so good at making up stories and scripts out of thin air,” Aishah Zahaire, 28, reportedly said in a posting on her Facebook page on Sunday.
The Daily Mail’s reports on the MH370 has been questioned, with Malaysia’s Acting Transport Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein yesterday also casting doubt on the tabloid’s report that cited purported insider information on a police probe on Zaharie.
Investigators have turned their attention to Zaharie and his co-pilot Fariq Abdul Hamid after the plane was said to have been diverted deliberately from its Beijing-bound route.
The police investigation on all passengers and cabin crew members of MH370 is still ongoing.
The multinational search for MH370 and the 239 people it carried is now in its fourth week.
Aviation experts have warned that a plane’s “black box”, which records vital flight information, only has power for 30 days.
With just about a week of battery life left, searchers are now racing against time to find the missing plane before its flight recorder falls silent.
- The Malay Mail / MAPA Malaysian Pilots Association new website
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