False News/Two-Minute Phone Call/Version 2
The Two-Minute Phone Call - Version 2
The Daily Mail published a more details of the alleged phone call on 22 March 2014.
Note: In this version the Captain received a two-minute call 'shortly before take-off'.
Relevant extracts from the article are reproduced below:-
The Daily Mail
22 March 2014
Probe into mystery call to captain of doomed jet: Unknown woman used a fake ID when buying phone to bypass security checks
- Call was made to Captain Shah just hours before he took off in MH370
- Pay-as-you-go phone which made the call was bought with fake ID
- Fake ID was used to get around security measures put in place after 9/11
- Increases fears Captain Shah may have links to terrorism
- Investigators will soon question the captain's estranged wife in detail
By Simon Parry
PUBLISHED: 18:40 EST, 22 March 2014
UPDATED: 20:51 EST, 22 March 2014
The captain of missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 received a two-minute call shortly before take-off from a mystery woman using a mobile phone number obtained under a false identity.
It was one of the last calls made to or from the mobile of Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah in the hours before his Boeing 777 left Kuala Lumpur 16 days ago.
Investigators are treating it as potentially significant because anyone buying a pay-as-you-go SIM card in Malaysia has to fill out a form giving their identity card or passport number.
Introduced as an anti-terrorism measure following 9/11, this ensures that every number is registered to a traceable person.
But in this case police traced the number to a shop selling SIM cards in Kuala Lumpur. They found that it had been bought ‘very recently’ by someone who gave a woman’s name – but was using a false identity.
The discovery raises fears of a possible link between Captain Zaharie, 53, and terror groups whose members routinely use untraceable SIM cards. Everyone else who spoke to the pilot on his phone in the hours before the flight took off has already been interviewed.
...
The mystery caller emerged when Malaysian investigators examined the phone records of both Zaharie and his co-pilot, 27-year-old Fariq Abdul Hamid. Investigators were keen to trace the caller and interview them, although they have stressed that the fact the SIM card was registered to a non-existent ID card does not necessarily indicate a criminal or terrorist connection.
Political activists in Malaysia sometimes use SIM cards bought with bogus identity cards if they fear that their phones may be bugged by the country’s authoritarian ruling party.
The Mail on Sunday revealed last week that Zaharie is an avid supporter of opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim, a distant relative, and may have attended a controversial court hearing where Anwar was jailed for five years. It took place only a few hours before the flight. The timing of the call has intensified scrutiny on Zaharie as investigators struggle to establish whether the cockpit crew, a catastrophic accident or hijackers are to blame for Flight MH370’s disappearance.
Comments
- Note that the headlines relate to two topics - the alleged phone call; and the intention of Investigators to interview Captain Shah's wife. The two are not related.
- In addition, the article includes factual information related to the current search status. See a full version here. This context creates the illusion that information about the phone call is also reliable.
- After the reader has been programmed to accept that all of the content is reliable the article returns to the subject of the phone call and infers a connection between SIM cards purchased with bogus identity and political activists. Even though a criminal or terrorist connection is 'not indicated', the inclusion of these words in the narrative do suggest to a reader that somehow this mysterious phone call could be linked to a criminal or terrorist act by a political activist. The context is also inferring that Captain Shah was a political activist. This writing style is probably deliberately crafted to mislead.
- Now let's summarise the 'facts' as presented in this article:-
- the alleged phone call was made to Captain Shah (not by Captain Shah as previously stated)
- the call was made 'shortly' before take-off
- the call lasted for a duration of two minutes
- the call was made from a mobile phone
- the calling number (and therefore the SIM Card) was identified by police
- the SIM card was sold by a shop in Kuala Lumpur 'very recently'
- the person who purchased the SIM Card presented false identification
- the purchaser was an adult female, described as 'a woman'
- From the above it was inferred that the person who called Captain Shah was the woman who purchased the SIM Card.
- There is no mention of the phone being purchased, only the pay-as-you-go SIM Card.
- A couple of questions arise from this information:-
- Did the shop have CCTV and if so was the customer transaction recorded?
- How did the caller know Captain Shah's private mobile number?, and
- Why did the caller expect Captain Shah to answer? A phone call made to an aircraft Captain shortly before take-off would normally not be answered. Phones on the Flight Deck should be switched off. So the context falsely infers that Captain Shah was expecting to receive a phone call.
- This story about an alleged phone call has been created to confuse, mislead, and deliberately smear Captain Shah's professional reputation!
Remember, Captain Shah was responsible for a Boeing 777 with 239 persons on board; and he was also a Type Rating Examiner, which means he was qualified not only to fly these aircraft but also to act as Examiner for other pilots; and on this flight he was doing just that - the First Officer was being assessed, and Malaysia Airlines entrusted Captain Shah with all of these responsibilities.