There has been confusion over exactly what was found on Capt. Zaharie Ahmad Shah's flight simulator since New York Magazine reported last week that an FBI analysis of the device showed Zaharie had conducted a simulated flight to the southern Indian Ocean less than a month before the plane vanished along a similar route. The magazine cited the discovery as strong evidence that the disappearance was a premeditated act of mass murder-suicide at the hands of the captain, AP reported.
Australia's Joint Agency Coordination Center —which is overseeing the search for the plane off Australia's west coast— confirmed that the captain's simulator showed that "someone had plotted a course to the southern Indian Ocean."
In an earlier statement, it said that evidence of the route did not prove that Zaharie had planned to steer the plane off course and showed only "the possibility of planning" for such an event.
Malaysia's national police chief Khalid Abu Bakar declined to comment Thursday, saying investigations will not be conclusive until the black boxes —the cockpit voice recorder and a data recorder— are recovered.
Officials have been stymied in their efforts to explain why the Boeing 777 carrying 239 people veered so far off course during a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8, 2014.
Theories have ranged from a deliberate murder-suicide plot by one of the pilots, to a hijacking, to a mechanical catastrophe.