KUALA LUMPUR: Flight MH370’s pilot Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah had loaded several alternate routes into his home-built flight simulator to study possible safe action plans he could opt for in cases of in-flight emergencies, a US official said.
CNN reported the unnamed official as saying that the searches, initially regarded as “curious”, later turned out to be what an experienced and professional pilot would do.
The official who is said to have knowledge of the on-going probe on the plane’s disappearance, was also quoted saying that no conclusive leads could be gleaned from Zaharie’s simulator.
There was no “we got it” information, the international news channel said in its online report today, quoting the official.
The multimillion ringgit hunt for MH370, now missing for four weeks, continued today off the coast of Perth in Australia with 10 military planes, three civil jets and 11 ships, according to the Joint Agency Coordination Centre (JACC).
The agency added that ADV Ocean Shield and HMS Echo are also continuing their search underwater in the vast, choppy Indian Ocean, as time continues to tick for MH370’s black boxes.
The black box recorders have a mere 30 day battery lifespan once they hit the water and is estimated to fade any day now.
The search zone for the missing Boeing 777 aircraft spans an area measuring 217,000 square kilometres, about 1700 kilometres north west of Perth.
Despite extensive, multi-nation search efforts since the jetliner disappeared off Malaysia’s coast on March 8, there has been no sign of the missing plane.
The Beijing-bound aircraft took off from the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) at 12.41am on March 8 and disappeared barely an hour later when it lost contact with the Subang Air Traffic Control (ATC).
At the time, the plane’s last known location was 120 nautical miles off the coast of Kota Baru in Kelantan.
Investigators, which include a massive team of experts from around the world, have so far concluded that the aircraft carrying 239 people had “ended” in the Indian Ocean, based on satellite and radar data.
But this is hundreds of miles away from MH370’s original flight path to Beijing.
It was concluded on March 15 — one week after MH370 left radar screens on March 8 — that the aircraft’s diverted flight path was the result of “deliberate action” by someone on board the plane with aviation knowledge and experience.
Since then, the final words that came from the cockpit, which is believed to be uttered by co-pilot Fariq Ab Hamid, became the subject of much scrutiny. Fariq, and flight captain Zaharie, became central to investigations surrounding the reason that MH370 was taken off its original flight path to Beijing.
Zaharie’s flight simulator was confiscated and sent for forensic analysis at the US Federal Bureau of Investigation but no leads were found.
Investigators have also said that all 227 passengers were cleared by intelligence agencies from all countries whose nationals were on board.
-The Malay Mail
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