Why was the FBI involved in MH370?

The FBI is aiding the Malaysian government's search for a Malaysia Airlines jet missing for more than a week. The US investigators are believed to be helping the Malaysians examine a home flight simulator belonging to one of the pilots of flight MH370 for clues.



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Malaysian police identified the captain as the prime suspect if human intervention was the cause of the disappearance, after clearing all others on the flight of suspicion over possible motives.

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Friends of Zaharie Ahmad Shah, who was the captain of MH370, told The Atlantic that the 53-year-old pilot was depressed and lonely, engaged in one-sided flirting with young women on Facebook, and spent much of his non-flying time pacing empty rooms inside his home.

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In 2014 all the families of passengers and crew on board MH370 were offered interim payments of US$50,000, non-conditional and regardless of any legal action, which some accepted.

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After the discovery of the debris, some speculated that flight 370 was shot down, but no evidence of shrapnel from a missile or other projectiles has been found.

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The Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) led the underwater search for missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 in the southern Indian Ocean, including analysis of the search area, the sea floor mapping and sea floor search.

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How much did the search cost? In 2014, Australia committed $90 million to the search for MH370, including $60 million to support the underwater search activities. The People's Republic of China committed $20 million in the form of funding and equipment.

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In the case of MH370, the authorities believe that the primary transponder was turned off, and the backup didn't activate. In any case, once an aircraft is more than 240km (150 miles) out to sea, radar coverage fades and air crew keep in touch with air traffic control and other aircraft using high-frequency radio.

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Several other planes have disappeared in the region including five US bombers that vanished in 1945, but in spite of massive air and sea searches, no trace of the bodies or aircraft was ever found. In 2009 a flight from Rio De Janeiro to Paris crashed into the Atlantic Ocean, killing 228 passengers and crew.

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MH370 Pilot Zaharie Ahmad Shah. While it seems incriminating, a member of the Independent Group - a watchdog group of aviation experts dedicated to the MH370 case - said it wasn't a “smoking gun”.

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Wang Moheng, 2, Chinese. The youngest passenger on flight MH370. The son of Wang Rui and Jiao Weiwei, Wang Moheng was only 23 months old at the time of the flight's disappearance. According to friends, his parents had taken him on his first overseas trip to “escape the bad air” of Beijing.

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Noble said the two men's identities were confirmed by Iranian authorities as Seyed Mohammed Reza Delavar, aged 29 and Pouria Nourmohammadi, aged 18. The two men used the Austrian and Italian passports that were recorded in INTERPOL's Stolen and Lost Travel Documents (SLTD) database to board China-bound flight MH 370.

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Yet such disappearances are not that uncommon: according to records assembled by the Aviation Safety Network, 100 aircraft have gone missing in flight and never been recovered since 1948.

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The last words spoken were Good night Malaysian three seven zero - and not all right, good night as reported. The transport ministry said forensic investigations would determine whether the pilot or co-pilot spoke the words.

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