A Muslim woman walks past the house of missing Malaysia Airlines co-pilot Fariq Abdul Hamid in Shah Alam, outside Kuala Lumpur
Fariq Abdul Hamid, the co-pilot of the missing Malaysia Airlines plane, was planning to marry Captain Nadira Ramli, a fellow pilot from another airline AirAsia, Sabah-based Daily Express reported today.
27-year-old Fariq, who began his career with MAS in 2007, and 26-year-old Nadira, a daughter of a senior Malaysia Airlines pilot, have known each other for nine years, the paper said.
The paper and several news portals claimed that Nadira was given a month's leave by AirAsia to comfort the mother of Fariq who suddenly disappeared with 11 other crew members and 227 passengers on board flight MH370.
The plane had left Kuala Lumpur for Beijing at 12:41 am on March 8 and lost contact with radar an hour later.
Nadira is now with Fariq's distraught mother at an undisclosed hotel in Kuala Lumpur, the paper said.
Fariq and Nadira studied together at the Flying School in Langkawi, the paper said.
However, Fariq's cousin, who declined to be named, said the pilot never went to school in Kelantan as he was brought up in Kuala Lumpur.
The mystery of the missing plane continued to baffle aviation and security authorities who have not succeeded in tracking the aircraft despite deploying hi-tech radar and other gadgets.
Prime Minister Najib Razak has claimed the flight veered off course due to apparent deliberate action taken "by somebody on plane".