Dad not giving up hope of seeing son again
Not
one easily to give up hope, Abdul Hamid Mohd Daud, says he can feel it in his heart that his son, Fariq, is still alive. Fariq, 27,is the first officer on board missing Malaysia Airlines jet MH370.
"My heart tells me that he is still with us," he told Kelantan Menteri Besar Datuk Ahmad Yakob (pic), who visited him at his home in Section 7, Shah Alam today.
"We are ready for any eventuality. Our bags and passports are ready. We are prepared to leave at a moment's notice when the time comes," he said.
Ahmad, who spent about 30 minutes with Fariq's family, gave them a donation to help them get through this difficult time.
Ahmad was quoted by PAS media Harakah Daily as saying that Fariq is from Kelantan and the state delegation made the trip because they sympathised with the family
"We hope everyone will pray that this incident has a good ending," he said.
Also present were Kelantan deputy Menteri Besar Datuk Mohamad Amar Nik Abdullah and several other state assemblymen from the PAS-led state.
Fariq, a young but experienced pilot with over 2,700 flying hours, was flying together with pilot Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah, 53, who has over 18,300 flying hours under his belt.
Both were described as experienced pilots by CNN aviation expert Richard Quest, who was with Fariq last month in the cockpit on a flight from Hong Kong to Kuala Lumpur while filming a CNN Business Traveller programme.
Quest said he recalled that the captain commented about Fariq's "textbook-perfect" landing during the February 19 trip.
MH370, which was flying from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on Saturday, went off the radar at about 1.30am, less than an hour after it left the Kuala Lumpur International Airport.
It disappeared while flying somewhere above the South China Sea between the Malaysian east court and the southern coast of Vietnam.
The fate of the 239 passengers and crew remain unknown. – March 10, 2014.
