Sunday, 16 March 2014

Malaysia police searches house of missing plane's captain

Malaysia's authorities said Sunday that the police searched the home of the missing MH370 flight's captain on Saturday but they had not publicized the result yet.

Malaysia's Ministry of Transport said in the statement released on Sunday that officers spoke to family members of the pilot named Zaharie Ahmad Shah and experts are examining the pilot' s flight simulator kept in his house.

On Saturday, the police also searched the home of the co-pilot Fariq Ab Hamid.

The statement said, as per normal procedure, the Royal Malaysia Police are investigating all crew and passengers on board MH370, as well as engineers who may have had contact with the aircraft before take-off.

"We appeal to the public not to jump to conclusions regarding the police investigation," the ministry added.

The statement also said the search and rescue continues to be a multi-national effort, led by Malaysia. Malaysian officials are contacting countries along two corridors -- a northern one from the border of Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan to northern Thailand, and a southern one stretching from Indonesia to the southern Indian Ocean where the missing plane might fly to according to Malaysia's Prime Minister Najib Razak.

These countries include: Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, Pakistan, Bangladesh, India, China, Myanmar, Laos, Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia, Australia and France. Officials are requesting assistance from these countries.

The statement said Malaysian officials are currently discussing with all partners how best to deploy assets along the two corridors. Malaysian officials are also asking countries to provide further assistance in the search for the aircraft, including: satellite data and analysis; ground-search capabilities; radar data; and maritime and air assets.

Both the northern and southern corridors are being treated with equal importance, it added.

Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak said Saturday in a media conference that the disappearance of the Malaysia Airlines jetliner was likely to be a deliberate act, and authorities had refocused their investigation on its crew members and passengers.

He said the last satellite contact with the missing flight was at 8:11 a.m. local time (0011 GMT) last Saturday, nearly seven hours after it disappeared from air traffic control radar.

Citing Malaysian air force radar data, the prime minister confirmed previous speculation the missing flight did turn back westward, recrossing the Malaysian peninsula before turning northwest.

But he did not confirm speculation the plane had been hijacked.

Meanwhile, the prime minister said the search in the South China Sea would end and authorities were reassessing the redeployment of assets.

Focus of the search for the missing Malaysian plane has shifted westward to the Indian Ocean, seven days after it lost contact with ground control.

Flight MH370 went missing early last Saturday morning with 239 people on board en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, sparking a massive search involving more than a dozen nations.

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