Pilot Zaharie, of Missing Malaysia Airlines Plane, a Passionate Aviator

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia—Fellow pilots describe Capt. Zaharie Ahmad Shah, who helmed the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370, as a skilled aviator and jovial colleague. His students recall a dedicated instructor. Others consider him a dear friend.

While his fate remains a mystery more than three days after his airliner vanished early Saturday with 239 people aboard over waters between Malaysia and Vietnam, those who know the veteran pilot portray an amiable geek who simply loved to fly.

“He’s a jovial guy. Everyone who knew him liked
him,” says a 43-year-old captain who has known Capt. Zaharie for nearly 25 years. “I flew as his co-pilot many times. He has always been a good pilot—very professional.”

As a young boy, Capt. Zaharie—born on July 31, 1961 in Malaysia’s northern state of Penang—was an avid soccer player and a bright student who excelled in physics and chemistry, former classmates say.

He joined Malaysia’s flag carrier as a pilot in 1981 after a training stint in the Philippines, and later made the rank of captain in the early 1990s, recalls Capt. Mohamad Goh, an airline colleague and former classmate.

Over the years, Capt. Zaharie’s passion for aviation impressed those who flew with him and lifted him up the ladder at Malaysia Airlines, fellow pilots say.

In his 33 years at Malaysia Airlines, Capt. Zaharie accumulated more than 18,360 hours of flying experience, supervised pilot training and operations for carrier’s fleet of Boeing 737 narrowbody jets, and was certified by Malaysia’s civil-aviation regulator as an examiner, allowing him to conduct simulator tests for pilots, his colleagues say.

As an instructor, he also trained many of his airline’s current crop of Boeing 777-200ER pilots, according to one of his students, a first officer with three years’ flying experience.

Away from the cockpit, Capt. Zaharie pursued his passion with a vigor that surprised even fellow pilots.

Colleagues speak of a remote-controlled aircraft hobbyist who spent his free time tinkering with model planes and helicopters, colleagues say. In his two-floor bungalow, located in an affluent suburb about an hour drive from Kuala Lumpur, Capt. Zaharie had even built a homemade Boeing 777 flight simulator, using computer parts and software he bought off the shelf.

“That thing cost a lot of money. He built it part by part, with big screens and all that,” said Capt. Goh, the longtime colleague. “I’m passionate about flying too, but not that passionate.”

Compliments have also poured in for Capt. Zaharie on social media, where friends, colleagues and even members of the public wished the pilot well and expressed hope he will be found alive.

“I know you have done well. Please come back,” a Facebook user, Shahizatul Ainah Saprudin, wrote on a tribute page to Capt. Zaharie, which has garnered more than 18,300 likes since it was set up on Sunday. “We will wait for you. All the world are waiting for you.”

In a popular online tribute that went viral, Malaysian blogger Dylan Tan collated publicly available photos and anecdotes about Capt. Zaharie and published them on his “Sharelor” website, documenting the 53-year-old pilot’s passion for aviation and dismissing theories Capt. Zaharie may have had a role in the disappearance of MH370.

Fellow pilots echoed such sentiments.

“He is not in any financial difficulties. He has no enemies,” says Capt. Goh. His disappearance “was a shock to all of us.”