While many theories and speculations continue to swirl around the mysterious disappearance of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, a woman recently came forward to defend its pilot, Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah.
The woman, Fatima Pardi, told Australian website The Australian in an interview that they had grown close to each other in the months leading up to his disappearance on March 8, 2014.
The 35-year-old former kindergarten teacher also revealed that they had allegedly messaged each other about a “personal matter” two days before the ill-fated flight, but she refused to divulge the content of their conversation.
“That last conversation was just between me and him. I don’t want to talk about it.
“I’m afraid what I say will be misunderstood. It was a personal matter, a private issue,” Fatima was quoted as saying.
She told the news portal that they had reportedly developed a close relationship with each other after meeting him during Malaysia’s general election period.
The relationship has reportedly blossomed until the point where Zaharie became a father figure to three of her children, one of whom has severe cerebral palsy.
“This is not a lovey-dovey story. He was a friend of mine. We were friends.
“He told me he saw potential in me and that he would help me build a better future for myself and my children,” she told the news portal.
Despite their close relationship, Fatima denied that they were having an affair.
“Of course there was gossip, people will always talk whether you’re good or you’re bad. People think I am the ‘other woman’. But we were close because the children loved him.
“I don’t believe that he loved me. I believe that he loved my children. Whatever my children said ‘We want this, we want that’, he would buy for them.
“I said to him he should stop doing that because I don’t pamper my children. He would say, ‘She’s just a kid’. So what could I conclude? That he loves children,” she was further quoted as saying.
Fatima, who has reportedly been interviewed four times by Malaysian investigators after the disappearance of MH370, told the news portal that she has finally decided to speak out to quash speculation that Zaharie might have hijacked the plane himself.
In July last year, New York Magazine claimed that based on leaked information, the flight simulator found at Zaharie’s home had a flight path that was similar to the one MH370 is believed to have taken after straying from its initial flight plan.
Malaysian and Australian authorities, however, have reportedly denied the murder-suicide story suggested by the news portal.
