News Update: Data Deleted From Malaysian Pilot’s Flight Simulator Weeks Before Plane Vanished

A relative of a passenger on the lost flight cried while speaking with members of the news media today Wed. Mar 19 at Kuala Lumpur International Airport.

The authorities here said today Wed. Mar 19 that they were trying to recover data deleted from a flight simulator custom-built by the pilot of the missing Malaysia Airlines jet, whose actions, along with those of his first officer, have fallen under growing scrutiny.

At a news briefing Wednesday that began after Chinese protesters representing relatives of passengers on the lost flight burst in and demanded information from the Malaysian government, officials said that investigators had recruited “local and international expertise” to examine the flight simulator taken from the home of the captain, Zaharie Ahmad Shah. They discovered that its data records had been cleared on Feb. 3, more than a month before the March 8 flight that vanished with 239 people on board after veering off its scheduled route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.

“The experts are looking at what are the logs, what has been cleared,” said Tan Sri Khalid Bin Abu Bakar, inspector general of the police, who declined to comment further. Flight simulators, computer programs often used in pilot training, can often replicate specific airports and flight paths.

The Malaysian defense minister, Hishammuddin Hussein, said the authorities had received background checks from the countries of all the passengers on the plane except Ukraine and Russia. “So far, no information of significance on any passengers has been found,” he said.

Because of evidence suggesting that whoever diverted the missing Boeing 777-200 knew how to disable the plane’s communications systems and make course changes, investigators have been closely examining Mr. Zaharie, 53, a veteran pilot with more than two decades of experience, and his co-pilot, Fariq Abdul Hamid, 27. But Mr. Hishammuddin cautioned that “the passengers, the pilots and the crew remain innocent until proven otherwise.”

“For the sake of their families, I ask that we refrain from any unnecessary speculation that might make an already difficult time even harder,” he said.

Earlier Wednesday, Australian organizers of one part of the vast search for the missing jet said that they had reduced their search area in the southern Indian Ocean by half. John Young, general manager for the Australian Maritime Safety Authority’s emergency response division, said the focus had been narrowed using new data analysis of the plane’s likely fuel consumption.

The revised area of focus in the Australian-led part of the search covers 89,000 square nautical miles, roughly 1,200 nautical miles southwest of the Australian city of Perth, Mr. Young said. He said the airborne searchers had found no traces of debris that could be from the jet. The searchers’ view of the water was good and they were able to spot marine life, “so we know we can make sightings, but there were no results relevant to the search,” Mr. Young said. Like other officials involved in the multinational search, Mr. Young stressed the difficulty of finding the plane, let alone possible survivors, more than a week and a half after the jet disappeared.