Friends discount claims by South African woman that Malaysian co-pilot was a cockpit Casanova

People looking at a plane of Malaysia Airlines at the international airport of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, The missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 was yet to be found. (PICTURE: XINHUA)

KUALA LUMPUR: The captain of a missing Malaysian jet is an engineering buff who assembled his own home flight simulator, while friends of the co-pilot have defended his reputation after one report portrayed him as a cockpit Casanova.

Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah, 53, joined Malaysia Airlines in 1981 and is praised as a passionate pilot who has logged 18,365 hours of flying time at work and still more at home on his sophisticated simulator.