Police began searching the homes of the pilot and co-pilot of the missing Malaysia Airlines flight today, after Prime Minister Najib Razak confirmed the plane was suspected to have been deliberately diverted, a senior police official told Reuters .
Police officers arrived at the home of the captain, 53-year-old Zaharie Ahmad Shah in Shah Alam, at 2.42pm, minutes after Najib ended his news conference.
Za harie has apparently set up the Boeing 777 simulator at his home.
Pictures posted by Zaharie on his Facebook page show a simulator with three computer monitors, a tangle of wires and several panels.
"The officers were just looking for some materials that can help in the investigation to locate the missing plane," a police source told news agency dpa , requesting anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to the press.
According to Bernama , three plainclothes police personnel introduced themselves as coming from Bukit Aman police headquarters to the security guard manning the Laman Seri residence at Section 13 before obtaining a security pass to go in.
It was believed that the police have conducted a search at the pilot's house and all of them were seen leaving the residence at about 4.46pm.
Many media personnel, including from the foreign media, were not allowed by the security to enter the housing area.
Bernama also reported that the police were believed to have searched co-pilot Fariq Abdul Hamid's home at Section 7 in Shah Alam for about an hour before leaving with at least two brown paper bags.
They arrived at Fariq's home in the same unmarked white multi-purpose vehicle (MPV), the same one that had entered Zaharie's gated residence.
Also seen outside the house were a grey coloured MPV and a Toyota Vios.
A total of four men in civilian clothes from the white MPV as well as six other individuals, all believed to be police officers, entered the co-pilot's house.
More info to be released tomorrow
The police will issue an official statement on the inspection of Zaharie 's house at a media conference that is scheduled for tomorrow.
"I cannot make any statement when investigation is still going on," said a police spokesperson.
Meanwhile, Penang chief police officer Abdul Rahim Hanafi said he had yet to receive orders to search Zaharie's family home in Balik Pulau, Penang.
He said analysis of the plane's last communication with satellites placed it in one of two corridors: a northern stretch from northern Thailand to the border of Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan, or a southern stretch from Indonesia to the southern Indian Ocean.
