KUALA LUMPUR: Investigators have found nothing suspicious in initial search of a home-made flight simulator, personal computers and e-mails of the pilots of the missing Malaysian plane, amid continued speculation over fate of the aircraft carrying 239 people.
“An initial search of the pilots’ personal computers and e-mails found nothing to indicate that the sudden deviation in the aircraft’s route was planned,” the CNN reported, citing US officials who were briefed by Malaysian authorities.
The officials also reviewed cockpit conversations between the pilots on board the missing Boeing 777 and air traffic controllers and heard nothing suspicious, it said.
“A flight simulator belonging to pilot Zaharie Ahmad Shah did not show any of the unexplained paths the plane may have flown after it went off the grid,” it quoted officials as saying.
According to earlier reports, investigators found the runways with over 1,000 meters length of five airports, including three in India and Sri Lanka, one at the Male in Maldives and an airport owned by the US (Diego Garcia), loaded into the home-made flight simulator of Captain Zaharie.
The house of Captain Zaharie was searched after Prime Minister Najib Razak said the aircraft veered off course due to apparent deliberate action taken “by somebody on plane”.
Captain Zaharie and first officer of the missing plane, both Malaysian, have come under scrutiny in the search for clues.
The US has ruled out the possibility of the missing plane landing at its Indian Ocean base in Diego Garcia.
Meanwhile, the Thai military has said it spotted a plane turning west toward the Strait of Malacca, an encouraging sign for the authorities who have so far failed to trace the plane.
This unknown aircraft, possibly Flight 370, was heading the opposite direction.
The Thai data are the second radar evidence that the plane did indeed turn around toward the Strait of Malacca.
“The unknown aircraft’s signal was sending out intermittently, on and off and on and off,” a Thai Air Force spokesman said. The Thai military lost the unknown aircraft’s signal because of the limits of its military radar, he said.
The mystery of the missing plane from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing since March 8 continued to baffle aviation and security authorities who have not succeeded in tracking the aircraft despite deploying hi-tech radar and other gadgets. –PTI
