After clearing everyone else on board, the pilot of missing Malaysian flight 370 has been named the ‘chief suspect.’
Zaharie Ahmad Shah, 53, programmed his home flight simulator with a route that would land a plane on a small island in the Indian Ocean. He rehearsed drills that would land the plane on the island with a short runway. Although Shah deleted the route, computer experts were able to recover them.
Despite suspicions, friends of Captain Zaharie cast doubt on the theory that he might have used the simulator to plan a hijacking: he was open enough to share images of his simulator on Facebook.
Friends say he also posted anti-terrorists posts on social media, along with supportive statuses of democratic opposition to Malaysia’s ruling coalition. He uploaded five YouTube clips about repairing electrical systems.
Malaysian police told the Sunday Times: “The police investigation is still ongoing. To date no conclusions can be made as to the contributor to the incident and it would be sub judice to say so.”
The Boeing 777 mysteriously vanished on March 8, with a total of 238 people on board.
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