MH370 pilot reportedly mapped murder-suicide flight path on simulator

The FBI have discovered the flight simulator plan of the Malaysian flight 370 pilot.
(Image credit: MOHD RASFAN/AFP/Getty Images)

Confidential Malaysian police documents obtained by New York show that the pilot of MH370 apparently once plotted a murder-suicide flight path similar to the one ultimately followed by the doomed plane, which vanished into the southern Indian Ocean in 2014. Pilot Zaharie Ahmad Shah had apparently used his Microsoft flight simulator program to "test" taking a plane northwest over the Malacca Strait, then turn south over the ocean until the fuel ran out. The recovered data points on his flight simulator were plotted less than a month before he apparently flew the plane along a similar course. One major difference, though, is that the simulated end point is 900 miles from where officials believe the plane actually went down.

Malaysian authorities apparently kept hidden the evidence that Zaharie was seemingly behind the plane's disappearance and crash; he was described in an official report as having "no known history of apathy, anxiety, or irritability." The U.S. and Australia have long been suspicious of Zaharie's involvement.

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Jeva Lange

Jeva Lange was the executive editor at TheWeek.com. She formerly served as The Week's deputy editor and culture critic. She is also a contributor to Screen Slate, and her writing has appeared in The New York Daily News, The Awl, Vice, and Gothamist, among other publications. Jeva lives in New York City. Follow her on Twitter.