Report: MH370 Pilot Flew Suicide Route on Home Simulator

[NemesisX]

http://www.cnn.com/2016/07/22/asia/m...ion/index.html

The CNN link has a video to watch.

(CNN)An FBI forensic examination shows the pilot of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 conducted a flight simulation on his home computer that closely matched the suspected route of the missing Boeing 777 in the southern Indian Ocean, according to a Malaysian government document obtained by New York magazine.

The confidential document summarizes Malaysia's police investigation into Zaharie Ahmad Shah, the captain of the plane that has been missing for more than two years.
According to the magazine, citing the document, the FBI analyzed hard drives from a flight simulator Zaharie had built using Microsoft Flight Simulator X software. The FBI was able to recover data points from the program that pointed to the southern Indian Ocean.
The document is quoted as saying the simulated flight was made less than a month before MH370 went missing in March 2014.

CNN has not independently confirmed the contents of the reported document.
Zaharie, 53, had been a pilot with Malaysia Airlines since 1981. He was a captain on the 777 for more than 15 years.
He was exceptionally experienced -- a training captain who was paired with 27-year-old first officer Fariq Ab Hamid.
Hamid was transitioning to the 777 fleet and MH370 was one of his first flights in that aircraft.

A Factual Report published on the first anniversary of the plane's disappearance dismissed accusations against Zaharie. It said "the captain's ability to handle stress at work and home was good. There were no significant changes in his life style, interpersonal conflict of family stresses."
The plane disappeared March 8, 2014, on a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. All those on board are presumed dead.
Searchers have scoured about 110,000 square miles in a remote part of the southern Indian Ocean, hunting for traces of the passenger jet and the 239 people it was carrying. The multimillion-dollar effort involved several ships with special equipment scanning sections of the sea floor.
Several pieces of debris have been recovered -- one off the coast of Reunion Island, which sits east of Madagascar, and other pieces in Mauritius, South Africa and Mozambique.

[NemesisX]

CNN is calling this circumstantial evidence, emphasizing that it does not prove anything. I agree it's not ironclad, but it's highly, highly suspect nonetheless. Apparently the Malaysian government knew about this from the beginning but they deliberately chose not to release it in their initial report. The U.S. found out after the FBI obtained and decoded the former captain's home computer (which had the flight simulator on it).

[NemesisX]

[fravel]

Honestly, with all the turmoil going on this is probably one of the better outcomes. The last thing we need right now is a report of it being yet another terrorist attack and/or act of war.

[David70]

Seems strange to me. Basically take off, go West, when you get to somewhere in the middle of the ocean stop flying. Who would practice this and is this the best info we have?

If I was a pilot thinking of ditching a plane in the Atlantic Ocean I don't think I would need to have test runs or simulated flights.

[csu87]

Originally Posted by David70

Seems strange to me. Basically take off, go West, when you get to somewhere in the middle of the ocean stop flying. Who would practice this and is this the best info we have?

If I was a pilot thinking of ditching a plane in the Atlantic Ocean I don't think I would need to have test runs or simulated flights.

Right, it doesnt sound so hard that you would need to practice.

He probably had to pee or something and forgot to pause.

[Maestro]

Originally Posted by fravel

Honestly, with all the turmoil going on this is probably one of the better outcomes. The last thing we need right now is a report of it being yet another terrorist attack and/or act of war.

First why wouldn't you think this might have been another one of these "lone wolf" as our government likes to call them doing this in the name of his religion to somehow punish people.

When this happen I always felt this was someone who had something to prove. If people thought at any time they could get on a plane and the pilot could just drop the plane in the ocean do you really think people would fly. This event did slow some people from flying over seas. Not to say US pilots are not immune, but when I fly over seas I fly US run airlines. The margin of safety is just a bit higher.

Face it we have a bunch of nuts cases running around trying to take out as many people as they can when they exist the world. Today it is not PC to talk about someone mental conditions nor can you discriminate against these individuals because they are mentally disturbed.

The airline hid this because they did not want people thinking the pilot purposely crashed the plane and the Airline could have other pilots who could do the same thing.

[fravel]

Good point