Fariq Abdul Hamid, 27, was planning to marry his girlfriend Captain Nadira Ramli, 26, a fellow pilot from another airline.
The Sabah-based Daily Express said that Miss Nadira, 26, has been given a month's leave as she awaits news of the flight's final destination.
Fariq Abdul Hamid, 27, was planning to marry his girlfriend Captain Nadira Ramli, 26, a fellow pilot from another airline
Details of the relationship emerged as it was revealed flight MH370's captain is a relative of Malaysia's jailed opposition leader. Intensive background checks on
everyone aboard had turned up no-one else with a political or criminal motive to crash or hijack the plane.
Interest in the co-pilot of the missing Malyasia airlines plane has been renewed after it was revealed this week that he was the last person to communicate from the cockpit after the communication system was cut off.
Mr Hamid met Miss Nadira when they studied together at the Langkawi pilot school and the couple have known each other for nine years.
Miss Nadira flies for Malaysia-based budget carrier AirAsia - Malaysia Airlines' fierce rival - and is the daughter of a senior Malaysia Airlines pilot, local media reports said.
Nadira Ramli is now with Mr Fariq's distraught mother at an undisclosed hotel in Kuala Lumpur
A relative in Kota Kinabalu, who declined to be named, told the newspaper that described the young pilot was calm in the face of adversity 'and a pillar of strength to Fariq's mother who had hardly slept for three days'.
'Nadira is positive about the incident and told her family not to listen to the TV. Despite what has happened, she still has a glimmer of hope,' said the relative.
The paper added that Miss Nadira was the youngest child of Captain Ramli Ibrahim and Nancy Jipanis of Penampang in Sabah.
Hamid had his reputation called into question by a South African woman who accused him of inviting her to join him in the cockpit for a journey in 2011, in breach of security rules.
Malaysia Airlines said it was 'shocked' by the reported security violation, but could not verify the claims.
Hamid had his reputation called into question by
a South African woman who accused him of inviting her to join him in
the cockpit for a journey in 2011, in breach of security rules
Malaysia Airlines said it was 'shocked' by the reported security violation, but could not verify the claims
But those who knew him have described the son of a top state civil servant as a mild-mannered young man with a bright piloting future.
Fariq regularly visited his neighbourhood mosque outside Kuala Lumpur where he also attended occasional Islamic courses, said Ahmad Sharafi Ali Asrah, the mosque's imam or spiritual leader, who called him 'a good boy'.
Fariq appeared in a CNN travel segment in February in which he helped fly a plane from Hong Kong to Kuala Lumpur.
A woman walks past the missing Malaysia Airlines co-pilot Fariq Abdul Hamid's house in Shah Alam, outside Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
It chronicled his transition to piloting the Boeing 777-200 after having completed training in a flight simulator.
CNN correspondent Richard Quest called Fariq's technique 'textbook-perfect,' according to the network's website.
Details of Fariq's personal life emerged as it was revealed today that his 'fanatical' co-pilot is related to Malaysia's jailed opposition leader.
After previously denying he recognised the pliot's name, opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim admitted that Malaysia Airlines MH370 Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah is related to his son-in-law.
'I am not denying that he (Zaharie) is related to one of my in-laws and that I have met him on several occasions,' he said.
After previously denying he reconigsed his name,
opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim, left, has admitted that Malaysia
Airlines MH370 pilot Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah, right, is related to
his son in law
He also admitted Zaharie is a close friend of PKR supreme council member and Subang MP R. Sivarasa.
He added: 'To politicise this is not right. We should respect the family's rights and pray for them instead of prosecuting him before the investigation is completed.'
Anwar further admitted that Zaharie was a staunch opposition supporter and that he had met the pilot on a few occasions at party functions.
He said: 'I am not one to hide my associations with others. I have met him once or twice but I do not remember how many times.'
The government has called on the public not to 'jump to conclusions' about the two men, saying they were not on record as asking to fly together on March 8.
Sympathetic tributes to them have poured out online.
In a YouTube memorial a collage of photos from various stages of Zaharie's life shows him happily socialising with friends and family, flying model airplanes, and doing volunteer work as the song 'Somewhere Over the Rainbow' plays.
A relative of a Chinese passenger aboard the
missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 shows a paper reading 'Hunger
strike protest, Respect life, Return my relative, Don't want become
victim of politics, Tell the truth'
Also today, China's ambassador to
Malaysia said his country had carried out a detailed probe into its
nationals aboard the flight and could rule out their involvement.U.S. and European security sources said efforts by various governments to investigate the backgrounds of everyone on the flight had not, as of Monday, turned up links to militant groups or anything else that could explain the jet's disappearance.
A European diplomat in Kuala Lumpur also said trawls through the passenger manifest had come up blank.
Families of the passengers aboard the missing
plane decided to organize a hunger strike to express their anger and
disappointment at the handling of the situation by authorities
They decided on the action after a daily morning meeting with two officials from Malaysia Airlines
Meanwhile, furious Chinese families today threatened to go on hunger strike until the Malaysian government tells them the truth about the fate of their relatives aboard the flight which went missing en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.
Ten days after the airliner vanished an hour into its flight, hundreds of family members are still waiting for information in a Beijing hotel.
Around two thirds of the 239 passengers on board Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 are Chinese.
Families vented their pain and anger on Chinese representatives sent by the airline to meet them on Tuesday and demanded to see the Malaysian ambassador.
'What we want is the truth. Don't let them become victims of politics. No matter what political party you are, no matter how much power you have, if there isn't life, what's the point? Where is compassion?' asked one middle-aged woman angrily.
'You're always going back and forth. I think your government knows in their heart why we want you to answer us. Because you're always tricking us, telling us lies,' added one man.
A pilot of an AP-3C Orion maritime patrol
aircraft scanning the surface of the sea during a search operation for
the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 to the west of Peninsula
Malaysia
China
has repeatedly called on the Malaysian side to do a better job at
looking after the relatives of the Chinese passengers, and to provide
them with updated information.Today China announced checks into the background of all the Chinese nationals on board the missing Malaysian jetliner have uncovered no links to terrorism.
The remarks by the Chinese ambassador in Kuala Lumpur will dampen speculation that Uighur separatists in far western Xinjiang province might have been involved with the disappearance of the Boeing 777 and its 239 passengers and crew early on March 8.
The plane was carrying 154 Chinese passengers, when Malaysian officials say someone on board deliberately diverted it from its route to Beijing less than one hour into the flight.
A massive search operation has yet to find any trace of the plane.
Chinese Ambassador to Malaysia Huang Huikang said today that background checks on Chinese nationals did not uncover any evidence suggesting they were involved in hijacking or an act of terrorism against the plane, according to state news agency Xinhua.
He also said that Chinese authorities had begun searching for the plane on its territory.
Two RAAF Orions have been assigned to the Malaysian-coordinated search for Malaysian Airlines Flight MH370
The Australian Marine Safety Authority (AMSA) is
coordinating a search of water spanning more than 600,000 square
kilometres, some 3200km southwest of Perth
Malaysian police are investigating the pilots and ground engineers of the plane, and have asked intelligence agencies from countries with passengers on board to carry out background checks on those passengers.
They say they are investigating the possibility of hijacking, sabotage, terrorism or issues related to the mental health of the pilots or anyone else on board, but have yet to give any update on what they have uncovered.
Late yesterday it emerged that the turn that diverted the missing Malaysian Airlines plane off its flight path was programmed into the aircraft's computer navigation system, probably by someone in the cockpit, the New York Times reported.
That reinforces the increasing belief among investigators that the aircraft was deliberately diverted, the newspaper said, quoting U.S. officials.
Rather than manually operating the plane's controls, whoever altered Flight 370's path typed seven or eight keystrokes into a computer situated between the captain and the co-pilot, according to officials.
The computer is called the Flight Management System.
Captured: Airport security CCTV of Zaharie Ahmad Shah, pilot of Malaysia Boeing 777 Airlines flight
That is the plane's last known confirmed position.
Today Australian authorities said they had begun searching 600,000 square kilometres of the remote Indian Ocean for missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, and conceded it was like looking for a needle in a haystack.
British Prime Minister David Cameron also today telephoned his Malaysian counterpart to offer Britain's help in dealing with the disappearance of Flight MH370.
Mr Cameron also told Najib Razak that his thoughts were with the families of those who were on board the Malaysian Airways jet, which went missing on March 8 en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.
It was the first direct contact between the two prime ministers since the mystery began, said Mr Cameron's official spokesman.
The Malaysian government has revealed it believes the jet was deliberately diverted and flew for several hours after leaving its scheduled flight path - either north towards Central Asia, or towards the southern Indian Ocean.
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