FBI: Nothing sinister on simulator

A Chinese aircraft has spotted three objects floating in a search area for the missing Malaysia Airlines jet

Cleared ... the FBI says MH370 pilot Zaharie Ahmad Shah's homemade simulator had 'nothing sinister'. Source: Supplied

POLICE and the FBI have found "nothing sinister" on the MH370 pilot's homemade flight simulator, Malaysia's Defence and acting Transport Minister said.

Hishammuddin Hussein said full details would come from the country's police chief.

RECAP: HOW DAY 21 OF THE SEARCH UNFOLDED

"As far as I know there is nothing sinister on the simulator but of course that will have to be confirmed by the chief of police," Mr Hussein said at a briefing after meeting family members of the plane's passenger in Kuala Lumpur.

He said the Malaysian police had been working with the FBI since day one on analysing the data on the simulator.

The homemade simulator, which pilot Zaharie Ahmad Shah built himself and was passionate about, was taken from his home in the wake of the plane's disappearance.

It was reassembled at police headquarters and examined. Police have said that the simulator logs were deleted on February 3 and the hard drive was sent to the FBI for further analysis about what was deleted.

Speculation has been rife about Captain Zaharie and the simulator amid unsubstantiated and unsourced reports about the simulator's contents.

A pilot and a father ... Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah with his daughter Aishah Zaharie. Source: Facebook

Mr Hussein said the issue would be further clarified by the police chief.

He said Malaysian police, along with international agencies, were continuing to investigate all aspects of the Boeing 777-200's disappearance on March 8.

SEARCH CONTINUES

The shift north to a new search zone 1800km west of Perth in shallower and more temperate waters has given searchers their best hope yet of locating the Malaysian Airlines black box before its batteries expire in nine days.

The Australian Maritime Safety Authority expected that the Chinese patrol Haixun 01, which was in the new search box from first light, could be in a position to begin hauling objects, which might be wreckage, onto its decks by late yesterday.

On Friday, five aircraft working the intensive multinational operation made promising sightings of multiple coloured objects in the new search area.

The search shifted north based on new calculations by international aviation investigators working in Malaysia that the jet flew faster and burned fuel more quickly than earlier presumed, causing it to crash 1000km north of the first search zone.

As the armed missile frigate HMAS Toowoomba prepared to join HMAS Success in the search area, the Haixun 01 was first at the site yesterday.

It will be joined by compatriot naval vessel Jinggangshan, which carries two helicopters and will give the searchers their best mobility to scour the area.

Two other ships were expected to arrive in the area at sundown, but would not begin their search until this morning – though weather conditions could deteriorate as a southern front approaches, potentially setting back the operation.

Yesterday's search saw seven military aircraft and one civilian jet operating out of Perth International Airport and RAAF Pearce, located in Bullsbrook north of the city.

DANICA WEEKS: GRIEVING MUM FACES HER TOUGHEST TALK

MASSIVE TASK: MH370 SEARCH ZONE SIZE OF VICTORIA

The search has moved closer to Perth, meaning search planes can stay longer in the air over the site, and the vessels descending on the area can work in less chaotic seas, but the operation nevertheless remains daunting.

"We should not underestimate the difficulty of this work, it is an extraordinarily remote location," Prime Minister Tony Abbott said yesterday.

"We are trying to find small bits of wreckage in a vast ocean. While we're throwing everything we have at it, the task goes on."

Australian navy in action ... the HMAS Toowoomba has joined the search for MH370 debris. Picture: Stewart Allen Source: News Corp Australia

WHALE NOISE: SOUNDS OF THE DEEP MIGHT HINDER SEARCH

Planes and ships today combed the newly targeted area with Mr Abbott saying authorities were transporting a black box locator to the search zone.

Flight 370 disappeared on March 8 after veering sharply off course while heading from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 passengers, including six Australians, and crew.

Investigators believed the Boeing 777 crashed in the southern Indian Ocean off the coast of Western Australia, where planes and ships have been looking for more than two weeks in the hope of recovering debris.

A black box locator is about to be sent out on an Australian navy ship in search of the missing MH370 plane.

The Australian Navy's HMAS Toowoomba left Fleet Base West near Perth tonight to join the search. It will be carrying a Seahawk helicopter. The 1800km trip will take about three days, the Australian Maritime Safety Authority says.

Another Australian navy ship, the Ocean Shield, is due to leave Perth tomorrow to join the search.

INDIAN OCEAN: WHY MH370 IS SO HARD TO FIND

RELATIVES HOLD OUT HOPE OF SURVIVORS

The plane and its passengers have been missing for three weeks, but Malaysia's transport minister has vowed to continue the search for "possible survivors".

"No matter how remote the odds, we will pray, hope against hope, and continue to search for possible survivors,'' Mr Hussein said after meeting yesterday with relatives of Malaysian passengers and crew.

The hardest part was seeing the hope in their eyes, he said.

"Miracles do happen, remote or otherwise," said Mr Hussein.

He said the families needed assurances that the search to find the plane would continue.

"They said that no matter how remote, hope against hope, please continue looking for survivors," he said. "I gave them that assurance."

Selamat Omar, whose son, flight engineer Mohd Khairul Amri Selamat, was aboard, said he would not believe, until it was certain, that all the passengers had perished.

The emotions of the families have been severely tested for the last 22 days.

Desperate for answers ... relatives of passengers on board MH370 after a meeting with a government official at a hotel in Putrajaya, Malaysia on Saturday. Source: AP

nvestigators are no longer convinced that satellite images that were thought to depict a "debris field" of 122 objects close to the original search area, 2,500km south-west of Perth, were bits of floating metal or bits of plane fuselage.

They also dismissed did not regard as credible reports that a Thai satellite had spied a separate debris field of some 300 objects.

This has also thrown into confusion the earlier view that "pings" emanating from the plane's satellite reporting system had been detected near the original search area, some eight hours after the plane departed Kuala Lumpur.

A silence has now fallen over the reasons why the plane so radically departed its course.

The numerous theories ranging from hijack to pilot suicide to rapid depressurisation have been talked over so thoroughly that now nothing less than a decisive reason will suffice.

The US is desperate that the plane be located because it is a US-made Boeing, and it needs urgent definitive answers as to whether a malfunction caused the plane to go down.

Under pressure ... Malaysia's acting Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein gestures as he listens to a question after meeting with relatives of passengers on board flight MH370. Source: AP

Most of the 239 passengers on MH370 were Chinese, and China is likewise pressing for a fast resolution in order to provide answers to hundreds of distraught relatives, who maintain their fury at Malaysia for what they see as its lame response to the crisis.

Discussions are underway as to where the wreckage will be taken, if and when it is located. The Chinese are believed to be anxious not to surrender material to Malaysia, who through convention have automatic control of the investigation but lack the necessary skills.

Perth is the obvious place to conduct a forensic investigation, and China will need to be persuaded UK and US investigators have the skills to assess the cause of the crash, if the black box does not yield its secrets first.

The navy's Ocean Shield is expected in Perth shortly to collect a black box locator and a submersible vehicle with arms and lights that could collect the box from its ocean grave.

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau has accepted the advice of international investigators which it says further refined the likely location of MH370, based on the new data analysis that the plane was travelling faster than first thought.

Weather was against the searchers today with a cold front bringing rain, low clouds and reduced visibility to the southern part of the search area, while moderate winds and swells of up to two meters were predicted by the Bureau of Meteorology.

Conditions are expected to improve by Sunday but rain, drizzle and low clouds are still likely.

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