Revealed: 'Fanatical' pilot is RELATED to jailed Malaysian opposition leader

The 'fanatical' pilot aboard the missing Malaysia Airlines plane is related to Malaysia's jailed opposition leader, it was revealed today.

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.

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.'

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 US 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.

Malaysian military radar spotted the plane in the northern reaches of the Strait of Malacca at 2.14am local time on March 8, just over 90 minutes after it took off from Kuala Lumpur.

That is the plane's last known confirmed position.