KUALA LUMPUR, March 20 —
Investigators are still probing the possibility that flight MH370 had veered off-course because of “deliberate action” by someone on board, Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein said today, following fresh data on the possible sighting of plane debris by the Australian authorities.
The acting transport minister told the daily press conference here that while the sighting is a “credible lead” on the aircraft’s disappearance, there has been no verification as yet as to whether the debris had indeed come from MH370.
As such, he said, investigations will proceed on all possible scenarios that could have led the Boeing 777 plane carrying 239 people to divert from its original flight path to Beijing.
“No, that has not been ruled out,” Hishammuddin said in reply to a question from an Australian reporter at a news conference in Sepang that was also broadcast live on television.
The reporter had asked if the latest debris sighting officially ruled out previous speculation that someone had deliberately diverted the plane off-course because of a “catastrophic” event on board the flight.
“Like I said... that has not been ruled out. And basically, the urgency to find the black box will give us some information on that line of investigation.
“Basically, if we can confirm that the debris identified this morning is the exact debris (from the plane) — efforts are being made to go to that location — the next step is to find the black box,” Hishammuddin said.
Investigations over the past few days were focused on MH370 pilot Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah and co-pilot Fariq Abdul Hamid.
Malaysian police had classified the case under Section 130C of the Penal Code that deals with hijacking, terrorism and sabotage.
Investigators reportedly found the specifications of runways of
five airports near the Indian Ocean loaded into Zaharie’s home-made flight simulator.
Local authorities also said yesterday that background checks on all passengers aboard the missing plane have been received, except for Russia and Ukraine, but nothing of interest was found.
Australian authorities said earlier today that poor visibility is hampering their search for the debris that satellite imagery had pinpointed in the southern Indian Ocean, southwest off the coast of Perth.
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