US Blogger Blaine Gibson showing and discussing the five pieces of debris he's found in Madagascar, and likely to have come from MH370

US Blogger Blaine Gibson showing and discussing the five pieces of debris he's found in Madagascar, and likely to have come from MH370

THE pilot who flew missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, which is believed to have gone off route and crashed in the Indian Ocean, conducted a simulation of a similar path just weeks prior, New York magazine reported.

According to an FBI investigation, Zaharie Ahmad Shah, the highly respected airman at the helm of the plane, used an elaborate home-built flight simulator to steer himself over the Strait of Malacca and into the remote southern Indian Ocean, a course with striking resemblance to the route MH370 is believed to have taken.

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Australia, Malaysia and China have agreed to suspend the search for the missing plane if it is not found by December, officials have announced.

When asked today why the Australian Government wouldn’t share all the information it has on the inquiry, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said it was a matter for the Malaysian investigators.

“I’m aware, as is the Government, of the reports about the FBI investigation into the MH370 captain’s home simulator,” Mr Turnbull said.

“These reports are not new and they have been reported previously in the media as you know. I’m unable to comment on them other than to say that it’s a matter for the Malaysian investigators when they’re considering their final report into this tragedy.”

Already Australia has spent $90 million on the operation to locate the Malaysia Airlines flight, which disappeared on March 8, 2014 after taking off from Kuala Lumpur to fly to Beijing.

Mr Turnbull said even if the if the simulator information did 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.” “It is and has been a shocking tragedy and, again, our thoughts and prayers are with the families of those who were lost. It is the location of this aircraft I hope will be found — I hope will be found, but at this point it is an unknown.

“It has an element of mystery but, above all, a deep sense of tragedy and loss and our hearts go out to the family and friends of those who died onboard that plane.

The finding, which casts a shadow of suspicion over the 53-year-old pilot, was published Friday by New York magazine, which obtained a confidential document from Malaysian police investigating the incident.

According to the document, the FBI recovered deleted data points from the flight simulator on Zaharie’s hard drive.

“We found a flight path, that lead to the southern Indian Ocean, among the numerous other flight paths charted on the flight simulator, that could be of interest,” the document said, according to New York magazine.

Although the paths are similar, the simulated flight’s endpoint is located some 1,450 kilometres from the area where the plane is believed to have gone down.

The Boeing 777 vanished for unknown reasons on March 8, 2014 en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people aboard, mostly Chinese nationals. It remains one of the greatest mysteries in aviation history.

The Malaysian government continues to maintain that it does not know what caused the incident.

At the time Zaharie, an opposition supporter, 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 due to personal problems.

But his family and friends strongly reject such claims as baseless.

News of the simulated flight came the same day that Malaysia, Australia and China, the three nations leading the search, said that hope of finding the flight’s final resting place is “fading” and that the massive hunt will be suspended if nothing turns up in the suspected crash zone.