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Investigators looking at the flight simulator taken from the home of Malaysia Airlines Flight
370 Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah have discovered that some data had been erased from it, Malaysia's
acting transportation minister said Wednesday. Hishammuddin Hussein didn't say what had been
deleted, but simulation programs typically store data from previous sessions for later
playback. He also did not say who might have deleted the data.
The deletions are not necessarily evidence of ill intent: Removing files from a computer
is usually an innocent act repeated millions of times a day around the world.
But experts consulted by CNN said it's relatively unusual to delete such data from a simulator:
The files are extremely small and are often kept by desktop pilots to gauge their progress,
said Jay Leboff, owner of HotSeat, a simulator manufacturer.
"It would be suspicious to me, because there's no need to do it," he said.
Experts are examining the simulator in hopes of recovering the deleted data, Hishammuddin
said. The revelation came as the search for the
missing airliner neared its 13th day. Although the search area spans a vast area
of nearly 3 million square miles, a U.S. government official familiar with the investigation said
the plane is most likely somewhere on the southern end of the search area.
"This is an area out of normal shipping lanes, out of any commercial flight patterns, with
few fishing boats, and there are no islands," the official said, warning that the search
could well last "weeks and not days." The official's comments echo earlier analysis
by U.S. officials saying the most likely location for the missing aircraft is on the bottom
of the Indian Ocean. Australia said Wednesday that the area of
the southern Indian Ocean where it is searching for the plane has been "significantly refined."
The new area is based on work done by the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board
on "the fuel reserves of the aircraft and how far it could have flown," said John Young
of the Australian Maritime Safety Authority. But Australian ships and aircraft have so
far seen nothing connected to the missing plane, Australian authorities said.
Angry families The lack of progress has angered and frustrated
families, who have accused Malaysian officials of withholding information.
Some family members staged a protest at the hotel where media covering the search are
staying. "We have been here for 10 days, no single
piece of information," one woman said. "We need media from the entire world (to) help
us find our lost families, and find the MH370 plane."
Malaysian authorities appeared to hustle the women away.
In a statement, Hishammuddin said Malaysian authorities "regret the scenes at this afternoon's
press conference." "One can only imagine the anguish they are
going through," he said of the families. "Malaysia is doing everything in its power to find MH370
and hopefully bring some degree of closure for those whose family members are missing."
An abrupt change in direction The plane's disappearance continues to intrigue
the public and frustrate officials, who have turned up no sign of the plane despite the
involvement of teams from 26 nations. On Tuesday, a law enforcement official told
CNN that the aircraft's first major change of course -- an abrupt westward turn that
took the plane off its route to China and back across the Malay Peninsula -- was almost
certainly programmed by somebody in the cockpit. The change was entered into the plane's system
at least 12 minutes before a person in the cockpit, believed to be the co-pilot, signed
off to air traffic controllers. Some experts said the change in direction
could have been part of an alternate flight plan programmed in advance in case of emergency;
others suggested it could show something more nefarious was afoot.
But Hishammuddin said Wednesday that "there is no additional waypoint on MH370's documented
flight plan, which depicts normal routing all the way to Beijing."
The Thai military, meanwhile, said it had spotted the plane turning west toward the
Strait of Malacca early on March 8. That supports the analysis of Malaysian military radar that
has the plane flying out over the Strait of Malacca and into the Indian Ocean.
But it didn't make it any clearer where the plane went next. Authorities say information
from satellites suggests the plane kept flying for about six hours after it was last detected
by Malaysian military radar.