Data from seized simulator sent to international experts

KUALA LUMPUR: Data recovered from a flight simulator seized from the home of the pilot of a missing Malaysian plane has been sent to international investigators for verification.

"As far as the simulator is concerned, we have forwarded the information to international parties to verify, and very shortly I believe the Inspector-General of Police will be able to give information of the current situation," Defence and Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein told reporters.

Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah, 53, the pilot of the plane, came under after Prime Minister Najib Razak said the change in plane's direction was consistent with a "deliberate action" by someone on board.

Investigators raided Zaharie's house and seized the simulator from his house. They then dismantled and reassembled it to analyse its data.

Police chief Khalid Abu Bakar on Wednesday said that game logs on the Boeing 777 simulator built by Zaharie were deleted on February 3 - over a month before the plane went missing.

The simulator had been made with off-the-shelf computer hardware including an ASUS Direct CUII and Rampage IV Extreme motherboard and six flat-screen monitors.

Khalid said there were three games found on Zaharie's simulator - Flight Simulator X, Flight Simulator 9 and X Flight Simulator.

According to media reports, the programs on the simulator included Indian Ocean runways in the Maldives, Sri Lanka, Diego Garcia and southern India.

Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 with 239 people, including five Indians, on board disappeared from radar screens on March 8, one hour after taking off from Kuala Lumpur. A multi-nation search for the plane has failed to locate the plane so far.