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Missing MH370: Query Over Pilot’s Flight Simulator
Malaysia Star ^ | NICHOLAS CHENG AND D. KANYAKUMARI

Posted on 03/14/2014 10:34:11 AM PDT by nickcarraway

A question about a flight simulator in the home of flight MH370 pilot Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah was raised at Friday’s media conference.

Malaysia Airlines chief executive officer Ahnad Jauhari Yahya said Malaysia Airlines had no policy forbidding staff from owning the technology.

Jauhari said Capt Zaharie was allowed to pursue his hobbies.

“There are several other guys (pilots) who also have flight simulators in their home," he told reporters.

Acting Transport Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Tun Hussein said the authorities will search the home of MH370 crew members if it was necessary to do so.

He said such a search could not be ruled out in the efforts to gather as much information as possible about the missing aircraft.

“If the investigation leads us to that direction (the need to search the house) and it is within the law, we will do it,” he said.

He said the “whole passenger” manifest was also being examined.

Capt Zaharie, 53 and co-pilot Fariq Abdul Hamid, 27, were among the 12-member crew of the Boeing 777-200 with 227 passengers.

Hishammuddin also said the investigators were looking at several possibilities as to why the plane’s transponder and the Aircraft Communication Addressing and Reporting System (Acars) did not transmit any data after 1.30am on Saturday.

“We are trying to find out whether they were shut down intentionally, shut down under duress or if an explosion occurred.

“We are looking at various possibilities, thus that is why I refuse to speculate,” he said.

Foreign media have been reporting on unverified news that police had raided the house of Capt Zaharie in Shah Alam and confiscated his flight simulator for investigations.

However, Bukit Aman sources have all denied the raid took place, saying the officers had tried to visit the family but found no one at home.

CNN reported that Capt Zaharie had posted on German online forum, X-Sim.de, that he had built a flight simulator himself in November 2012.

"About a month ago I finish assembly of FSX and FS9 with six monitors" in a message signed Capt Zaharie Ahmad Shah BOEING 777 MALAYSIA AIRLINES.

Checks reveal that FSX and FS9 were over the counter flight simulator games made by Microsoft that could be easily bought online.

Capt Zaharie studied aviation at the Philippine Airlines Aviation School in Pasay City, Manila in 1980, before joining Malaysia Airlines in 1981.

The Penangite became a captain in the early 1990's and has 33-years and 18, 360 hours of flying experience under his belt.

His colleagues described him as a jovial but professional "aviation geek" who collects remote controlled miniature aircrafts, light twin engine helicopters and amphibious aircrafts.

Outside of aviation, he runs a YouTube channel dedicated to DIY projects, where he teaches viewers how to fix home appliances like air-conditioners.


TOPICS: Extended News; Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: iran; malaysia; mh370; waronterror
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1 posted on 03/14/2014 10:34:11 AM PDT by nickcarraway
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To: nickcarraway

It may be that he was just a little over-the-top excited about his job.................


2 posted on 03/14/2014 10:36:28 AM PDT by Red Badger (LIberal is an oxymoron......................)
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To: nickcarraway

I’ve got a friend who flies for UPS who has a pretty extensive flight simulator set up.


3 posted on 03/14/2014 10:38:05 AM PDT by cripplecreek (REMEMBER THE RIVER RAISIN!)
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To: nickcarraway

Saw this on another site and this is very troubling about the Captain.

And in a German online forum for simulator enthusiasts, X-Sim.de, there is a post from November 2012 in his name that says he built it himself.

“About a month ago I finish assembly of FSX and FS9 with 6 monitors.” The message was signed Capt. Zaharie Ahmad Shah BOEING 777 MALAYSIA AIRLINES


4 posted on 03/14/2014 10:38:26 AM PDT by ncfool (Taking back America 2016.)
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To: nickcarraway

Whoah! Whoah whoah whoah!

They weren’t all over his house five hours after the plane disappeared without a trace?!

Is this the kind of third world empire BO is working to end up with in the us?

There are people, innocent people, whose families need to know, if not people who need to be found

Wow!!


5 posted on 03/14/2014 10:38:44 AM PDT by stanne
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To: Red Badger

True that. At the same time it would be interesting to see what a forensic investigation of the simulator’s hard drive would indicate.


6 posted on 03/14/2014 10:39:00 AM PDT by stormer
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To: nickcarraway

Why have the not searched his home yet?


7 posted on 03/14/2014 10:39:38 AM PDT by ncfool (Taking back America 2016.)
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To: Red Badger

A little off topic, but I am curious about the following from U.S. Dept. of Defense:

“U.S. Warning Systems Detect, Track North Korean Missile Launch

From a North American Aerospace Defense Command News Release

PETERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Colo., Dec. 11, 2012 – North American Aerospace Defense Command officials acknowledged today that U.S. missile warning systems detected and tracked the launch of a North Korean missile at 7:49 p.m. EST.

The missile was tracked on a southerly azimuth, officials said. Initial indications are that the first stage fell into the Yellow Sea. The second stage was assessed to fall into the Philippine Sea.

Initial indications are that the missile deployed an object that appeared to achieve orbit, officials said.

The missile or the resultant debris, officials added, never posed a threat to North America.”

Does that mean all of the components had special transposers on them and that if an enemy turned off the transposers on their ICBMs, we would not be able to track them???


8 posted on 03/14/2014 10:41:07 AM PDT by Gadsden1st
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To: nickcarraway

There are people with all kinds of things in their homes. But there aren’t too many of them at the helm of a disappearing airplane, and none of that set (2 total) with a pictorial history involving a ton of professional index region.


9 posted on 03/14/2014 10:41:09 AM PDT by stanne
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To: ncfool

‘Why haven’t they searched his home yet?’

They’re thinking about it

While our particular king, educated and formed in the same tradition as those in charge of this ridiculousness and likely mass coverup, is trying on sweaters at the gap

The whole world should be incredulous


10 posted on 03/14/2014 10:45:01 AM PDT by stanne
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To: nickcarraway

Having a passion for, and enjoying your profession has become something bad ??? There are MANY pilots, of all types, that enjoy building and flying simulators.

I know. I am one of them.


11 posted on 03/14/2014 10:45:59 AM PDT by EagleUSA
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To: nickcarraway

Tanks on those planes carry some known ‘surplus’ fuel... could the plane have made it to Pakistan?


12 posted on 03/14/2014 10:47:04 AM PDT by GOPJ (From a bellwether to an "oh-whateverrrr" in less than a single news cycle. -freeper Fightin Whitey)
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To: nickcarraway
As a flight sim enthusiast myself(FS2004)...I envy this guy .

(pure passion...or insanity?)

13 posted on 03/14/2014 10:48:58 AM PDT by RckyRaCoCo (Shall Not Be Infringed)
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To: nickcarraway

I think people are seriously over-reacting. What is wrong with this? This is a pretty popular hobby among flying enthusiasts. I’m not even a pilot, but after flying various software sims at home, and a couple of hardware sims, I would love to have something like this.


14 posted on 03/14/2014 10:53:27 AM PDT by LambSlave
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To: nickcarraway

Lots of pilots I know are aviation geeks, and they love to fly. Very common for them to have a sim at home. I would have checked his to see if the path of MH370 was on it, but having a sim at home is not unusual for pilots.


15 posted on 03/14/2014 10:55:28 AM PDT by Jaxmum
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To: stormer

I’m pretty sure that it’s being gone over with a fine tooth comb, even as we FReep..................


16 posted on 03/14/2014 10:55:35 AM PDT by Red Badger (LIberal is an oxymoron......................)
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To: EagleUSA

Would an investigation of that pilot’s flight stimulator have a record if he used it to practice landing somewhere obscure?


17 posted on 03/14/2014 10:56:24 AM PDT by grania
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To: EagleUSA

Oh geeze. No.

Oy

Co piloting a disappearing plane with no trace has always been questionable. If it happens to you, the NYSB, FBI, CIA and the FAA and all their friends will be spilling their alphabet soup all over your simulator panel

And rightfully so

And a whole lot sooner than more that a week after the disappearance


18 posted on 03/14/2014 10:56:55 AM PDT by stanne
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To: nickcarraway

“...Foreign media have been reporting on unverified news that police had raided the house of Capt Zaharie in Shah Alam and confiscated his flight simulator for investigations.

However, Bukit Aman sources have all denied the raid took place, saying the officers had tried to visit the family but found no one at home....”
******************************************************************

“Tried to visit the family but found no one at home”?? And was there ANY curiosity at all about exactly WHERE is his family?

Who’s in charge of this investigation-—Inspector Jacques Clouseau?


19 posted on 03/14/2014 10:56:56 AM PDT by House Atreides
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To: nickcarraway

http://youtu.be/kyTTheEpMzw


20 posted on 03/14/2014 10:57:32 AM PDT by tsowellfan (www.cafenetamerica.com)
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