Kuala Lumpur, March 19 (IANS): All the game logs in the personal flight simulator of Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah, who commanded the missing Malaysian airliner, were deleted Feb 3, a senior police official said Wednesday.
"What we found from the simulators is that the data log from the games was cleared Feb 3 so the experts are looking at what was cleared. Our forensic experts, including those from cyber security, Malaysia Airlines and foreign experts are working to restore the erased data logs in the flight simulator," the Malaysian Star quoted Inspector General of Police Khalid Abu Bakar as saying at a press conference.
"We are hearing all information relevant to the case along with all relevant international agencies that require it. Local and international expertise has been recruited to examine the pilot's flight simulator," acting Transport Minister Hishamuddin Hussein, who was also present at the press conference, said.
"All passengers, crew, and ground staff handling the aircraft are being investigated. I will say that the passengers, cabin crew and pilots remain innocent until proven otherwise," Hishamuddin Hussein added.
The flight simulator was built by Captain Zaharie himself in November 2012. It had been made with off-the-shelf computer hardware including an ASUS Direct CUII and Rampage IV Extreme motherboard and six flat-screen monitors.
The simulator can re-create almost 20,000 airports worldwide and all routes flown can be saved on a hard-disk. Many of the controls are simplified, but the simulator provides basic features that recreate some of what an actual pilot experiences.
According to reports, three games -- Flight Simulator X, Flight Simulator 9 and X Flight Simulator -- were found in the captain's personal simulator.
The police searched Shah's house soon after Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak confirmed last week that the plane was suspected to have been diverted deliberately.
Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 vanished mysteriously about an hour after taking off from Kuala Lumpur March 8.
The Boeing 777-200ER was initially presumed to have crashed off the Vietnamese coast in the South China Sea.
The plane was scheduled to land in Beijing at 6.30 a.m. the same day. The 227 passengers included five Indians, 154 Chinese and 38 Malaysians.
Contact with the plane was lost along with its radar signal at 1.40 a.m. when it was flying over the air traffic control area of Ho Chi Minh City.
As of now, 26 countries are searching for the missing jet.