MH370 pilot was in 'no state of mind for flying': A long-time friend

Kuala Lumpur, March 26: In a shocking revelation, a long-time friend of the

of the ill-fated flight MH370 stated that his friend was shattered and upset over his wife's decision to move out of the family home.

Therefore, he does not discount the fact that the pilot may have taken the plane for a "last joyride" before he took it down into the southern Indian ocean killing all the 239 people on board.

Also a pilot, the friend said Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah was left very upset about his family problems and that ‘it was very possible that neither the passengers nor the other crew on-board knew what was happening until it was too late'.

On conditions of anonymity, the friend told the NZ Herald,"He's one of the finest pilots around and I'm no medical expert, but with all that was happening in his life Zaharie was probably in no state of mind to be flying."

Another interesting fact that was revealed by the friend was Zaharie had an affair with another woman, which led to dischord in the family. "His relationships were breaking down,and while Zaharie was involved with another woman he was still devastated at his wife's decision to move out of their family home," he said.

The friend adda another theory to the devastating incident. The upset pilot may have seen MH370 as an opportunity to try the high-risk maneuvers that he had perfected on his flight simulator at home.

A flight without Oxygen

With an impeccable track record, what was running in Zaharie's mind when he took the flight to a height of 43,000 is still unclear. But what is getting clearer is why none of the passengers try contacting their relatives or why there was no contact from the cockpit.

Aviation experts say,"It was tracked flying at this altitude for 23 minutes before descending. Oxygen would have run out in 12 minutes [in a depressurised cabin], rendering the passengers unconscious."

The source further added,"The 777-200ER Boeing aircraft used on the ill-fated flight has a maximum service ceiling of 43,000 feet and can very probably fly safely at even greater heights. But at this altitude, where the atmosphere drastically thins, it would take mere minutes if not seconds for hypoxia - a lack of oxygen - to set in if the cabin was manually depressurised by one of the pilots."

Reconstructing what may have happened in the last 52 minutes, experts say that even if Oxygen masks dropped down at that altitude, there would be an Oxygen supply of just 5-10 minutes.

The falling pressure

Moreover, the air used for pressurizing the cabin comes through the engine and wing and then filtered before entering the cabin. There might be a situation when the pilot may have to switch off the pressurization if the aircraft enters dirty air, but here it may have been done for a suicide attempt.

Inmarsat's proof

The British satellite firm somewhat supports the above-mentioned theory with the analysis of the seven pings that it has received using the Doppler effect. Using this, the company was able to rule out the fact that the aircraft had travelled in a northerly direction. It also deduced that the aircraft may have maintained that height for 23 minutes, which is enough to make all the passengers, including the pilots, unconscious.

Obviously, they did not even know what lay infront of them when the aircraft plunged in the Indian Ocean after it ran out of fuel.