MH370 Pilot Receives Call from Mysterious Woman

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The captain of missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, Zaharie Ahmad Shah, received a two-minute call shortly before take-off from an unidentified woman using a mobile phone. It was one of the last calls made to or from the mobile phone of Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah in the hours before his Boeing 777 left Kuala Lumpur on March 8.

Investigators are treating it as potentially significant because anyone buying a pay-as-you-go SIM card in Malaysia has to fill out a form giving their identity card or passport number. This was introduced as an anti-terrorism measure following 9/11 and ensures that every number is registered to a traceable person.

But in this case police traced the number to a shop selling SIM cards in Kuala Lumpur. They found that it had been bought “very recently” by someone who gave a woman's name—but was using a false identity.

The discovery raises fears of a possible link between the disappearance of MH370 and terrorism. However, the purchase of SIM cards without identification does not always link to terrorism.

Everyone else who spoke to the pilot on his phone in the hours before the flight took off has already been interviewed, as well as those who spoke to co-pilot Fariq Abdul Hamid.

The police are now poised to question MrZaharie's estranged wife, Faizah Khan, in detail. They have waited two weeks out of respect, but will now begin formally interviewing her. A source from The Mail said, “Faizah has been spoken to gently by officers but she has not been questioned in detail to establish her husband's behavior and state of mind in the days leading to the incident.” 

HARUN MAHBUB (The Straits Times)