In the course of their investigations into the background of the flight crew of missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370, Malaysian police have discovered runway data for five Indian Ocean landing strips on a flight simulator belonging to MH370’s pilot.
An unnamed source told Berita Harian the discovery of these runways on Captain Zahirie Ahmad Shah’s personal flight simulator, found in his home, was not conclusive proof of foul play or criminal intent, but was still considered an important element in the probe on the whereabouts of the missing jetliner.
“The simulation programmes are based on runways at the Male International Airport in Maldives, an airport owned by the United States (Diego Garcia), and three other runways in India and Sri Lanka, all have runway lengths of 1,000 metres.
“We are not discounting the possibility that the plane landed on a runway that might not be heavily monitored, in addition to the theories that the plane landed on sea, in the hills, or in an open space,” the source was quoted as saying.
Although Defence Minister Datuk Seri Hishamuddin Hussein denied yesterday that the plane might have landed at the US military base in Diego Garcia, the unnamed source told Berita Harian the possibility would still be looked into, based on the runway data discovered on Zaharie’s flight simulator.
The police had seized the flight simulator from 53-year old Zaharie’s home in Shah Alam on Daturday and reassembled it at police headquarters to be scrutinised by experts.
According to the Transport Ministry, police also searched the home of 27-year old first officer Fariq Abdul Hamid on the same day.
Story: Berita Harian
