Putrajaya (Malaysia) – A senior Malaysian official said that the pilot of missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 had plotted a flight path into the Indian Ocean in his flight simulator at home.
Transport Minister, Liow Lai, said on Thursday in Putrajaya (Malaysia), at a press briefing that the simulator flight path is not enough proof to conclude that the pilot crashed the missing plane.
“Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah, the pilot of the missing plane, plotted the flight path into the Indian Ocean but it was just one of the thousands of routes on his home simulator.
“Just based on this, we cannot confirm he did it,” he said.
The minister said that there is still no evidence to confirm that Capt. Zaharie deliberately flew the plane into the Indian Ocean.
Meanwhile, some experts had suggested the disappearance of the Beijing-bound flight MH370, with 239 people on board, on March 8, 2014 was a case of pilot murder-suicide.
The speculation was triggered by a U.S. magazine report last month that an FBI analysis of data found in the flight simulator owned by the plane’s captain showed he conducted a simulated flight to the Indian Ocean a few weeks before the plane vanished along a similar route.
Khalid Abu-Bakar, Malaysian Police Chief Inspector General (IGP), has dismissed the pilot murder-suicide theory as “not true.”
He said that the investigation on the disappearance is still ongoing.
Abu-Bakar added that it is only the recovery of the missing plane’s black box could provide answers as to what happened to the aircraft.
The IGP said that pieces of debris from MH370 have been discovered in South Africa, Mozambique, Mauritius and Reunion Island, but so far searchers have yet to find the main wreckage. (dpa/NAN)