Report: Police clears MH370 pilot of terror links
According to the New Sunday Times (NST), police also questioned MAS ground staff and other employees who were in contact with the jetliner before it took off on March 8, but found nothing suspicious.
“Checks had cleared him of any involvement with terrorist or extremist groups,” the NST quoted an unnamed source as saying, referring to Zaharie.
The newspaper cited another source as saying that the police had probed MAS employees, including ground staff, catering staff, ground support units and runway marshalls.
Yesterday, the police searched the homes of Zaharie and co-pilot Fariq Abdul Hamid in Shah Alam shortly after Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak told a news conference that MH370 was diverted deliberately, after someone on board switched off the Boeing 777’s communications systems.
Najib said yesterday investigation on the disappearance of MH370 will now refocus of the passengers and crew onboard.
NST reported the police as carrying two brown bags after searching Fariq’s house.
Schoolmates described Zaharie, who has logged 18,360 flying hours since joining MAS in 1981, as someone who would never compromise the safety of his passengers.
In a report by local daily The Star today, former classmate Mohd Nasir Othman said Zaharie had set up a flight simulator at home because he was a “gadget geek”.
“He would never do anything that would endanger people’s lives,” Mohd Nasir was quoted as saying.
NST reported that Zaharie has a Boeing 777 flight simulator at home and that the 52-year-old was certified by the Department of Civil Aviation as an examiner.
In another article, The Star quoted sources as saying that investigations on MH370 crew and passengers would focus on those with aviation knowledge, as well as examine the political and religious leanings, travel patterns and hobbies of those on board the plane, which had carried 239 people, including two infants.
The paper reported Zaharie as posting in an online forum in November 2012 that he had built a flight simulator himself.
Najib also said yesterday that the final satellite communication with the plane occurred at 8.11am on March 8, indicating it continued flying after its transponder was disabled and the engine performance data link with MAS was severed more than seven hours before. But the satellite data did not indicate the plane’s location at the time.
It was also confirmed that military radar definitively tracked MH370 as it changed course and headed west towards the Indian Ocean.
The prime minister said that search and rescue efforts in the South China Sea would be called off and pointed to two corridors where the plane could possibly be located: a northern arc from northern Thailand to the border of Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan in central Asia, or a southern one from Indonesia to the southern Indian Ocean.
- See more at: http://www.themalaymailonline.com/malaysia/article/report-police-clears-mh370-pilot-of-terror-links#sthash.jOuRf6Yf.dpuf
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