Australia yesterday brushed off a reported FBI probe into the pilot of missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370, saying it was a matter for Malaysia and did not shed light on the airplane’s location.
New York Magazine on Friday last week cited a secret FBI document showing the jet’s captain, Zaharie Ahmad Shah, used his elaborate home-built flight simulator to chart a route similar to the one believed taken by the doomed airplane just weeks before it disappeared.
The revelation reignited speculation in the Australian media yesterday that the unsolved mystery could have been a murder-suicide.
“I am aware, as is the government, of the reports about the FBI investigation into the MH370 captain’s home simulator,” Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said in Sydney. “I am unable to comment on them other than to say that it is a matter for the Malaysian investigators when they are considering their final report into this tragedy.”
However, he added: “I just note that even if the simulator information does show that it is possible or very likely that the captain planned this shocking event, it does not tell us the location of the aircraft.”
Australia has been leading the massive search for the Malaysia Airlines airplane, which is believed to have gone down in the southern Indian Ocean after vanishing on March 8, 2014, en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people aboard.
With the designated 120,000km2 search zone almost scoured, Malaysia, China and Australia last week agreed the hunt would be suspended if nothing is found.
Search authorities say satellite data indicated the airplane went down somewhere in that remote and stormy ocean far off Western Australia, with the Malaysian government saying it still does not know what caused the tragedy.
According to a confidential document from Malaysian police investigating the incident obtained by New York Magazine, the FBI recovered deleted data points from the flight simulator on Zaharie’s hard drive.
“We found a flight path, that led to the southern Indian Ocean, among the numerous other flight paths charted on the flight simulator, that could be of interest,” it said, according to the report.
Although the paths are similar, the simulated flight’s endpoint is located about 1,450km from the area where the airplane is believed to have gone down, it said.
At the time of the crash, Zaharie came under scrutiny amid unsubstantiated reports that he was upset over a jail sentence handed to Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim hours before the plane took off, or was suicidal.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of
A prominent Christian leader has allegedly been stabbed at the altar during a Mass yesterday in southwest Sydney. Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel was saying Mass at Christ The Good Shepherd Church in Wakeley just after 7pm when a man approached him at the altar and allegedly stabbed toward his head multiple times. A live stream of the Mass shows the congregation swarm forward toward Emmanuel before it was cut off. The church leader gained prominence during the COVID-19 pandemic, amassing a large online following, Officers attached to Fairfield City police area command attended a location on Welcome Street, Wakeley following reports a number