MH370: China attacks Malaysian search operation

Police search Zaharie Ahmad Shah's home as it is confirmed that missing plane's communications were 'deliberately disabled'

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A security guard stands at a main gate outside the house of the missing Malaysia Airlines pilot
A security guard stands at a main gate outside the house of the missing Malaysia Airlines pilot Zaharie Ahmad Shah. Photograph: Lai Seng Sin/AP

China's state news agency has made its harshest attack yet on Malaysia's handling of the investigation into missing flight MH370, while Malaysian police searched the home of the plane's pilot.

Xinhua said on Saturday that "massive efforts have been squandered, and numerous rumours have been spawned, repeatedly racking the nerves of the awaiting families".

The report cited reluctance to share information "in a full and timely manner" which was intolerable for the relatives.

Meanwhile Malaysian police searched the home of the pilot at the helm of the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, after the country's prime minister confirmed earlier on Saturday that the Boeing 777's communications were deliberately disabled by "someone on the plane".

Police officers arrived at 53-year-old captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah's home on the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur shortly after the PM, Najib Razak, finished his dramatic press conference, during which he told reporters new satellite data indicated that MH370 last made contact roughly seven hours after it vanished from civilian radar one week ago.

While the raw satellite footage has helped investigators determine that the plane was still flying long after it lost contact with air traffic control at 1.22am on Saturday 8 March with 239 people on board, it could not discern the aircraft's exact location, Najib said – putting it anywhere along two possible flight corridors: a northern corridor stretching from Kazakhstan, in central Asia, down to northern Thailand; and a southern corridor stretching from Indonesia towards the southern Indian Ocean.

While authorities had initially focused their investigation on the missing plane on four possible explanations, including possible hijacking, sabotage, or the personal or psychological problems of the crew or passengers, the "new information" that had come to light was forcing investigators to rethink their strategy, Najib said.

"In view of this latest development, the Malaysian authorities have refocused their investigation into the crew and passengers on board," he told reporters on Saturday.

The satellite data indicates that the plane was flying far longer than had been initially believed, and is likely to instigate what may be the biggest hunt ever for a missing plane. Some 14 countries, 43 ships and 58 aircraft are already involved in search and rescue efforts, but the two new flight corridors will necessitate the assistance of the countries underneath those corridors – including, possibly, Burma, Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Kyrgyzstan, China, Nepal, Tajikistan and Afghanistan.

The hunt for the plane will therefore require military and diplomatic co-operation as investigators attempt to piece together, through civilian, military and satellite data, what the exact fate of the missing jet may be.

It is unclear if police had also begun searching the homes of the other 11 Malaysian crew on board, including co-pilot Fariq Abdul Hamid, 27, who is known to have entertained passengers on board a previous flight in the cockpit during a Phuket-Kuala Lumpur flight in 2011.

Captain Zaharie joined Malaysia Airlines in 1981 and was known as an avid flight buff who had clocked in 18,365 flight hours. He had a penchant for toying around with miniature planes on weekends and, as a certified flight simulator test examiner, had built himself a flight simulator at home.

Another report emerged on Saturday indicating that MH370 may have turned south towards the Indian Ocean, where it is believed to have last been identified 1,000 miles west of Perth in Australia, according to satellite "pings" that recorded the plane's data, Bloomberg reported.

If the plane did continue northwards instead, towards central Asia, then it is unclear how it would have avoided being detected by Indian air control, whose radar coverage is likely to have intercepted the jet.

While it is not clear how much fuel the Boeing-777 was holding, there would have been enough to fly it at cruising altitude to its scheduled destination, Beijing, a nearly six-hour flight. It is believed, however, the missing jet may have been flying at a higher altitude, which would have allowed it to carry on for longer.

The news is likely to fuel further speculation over suspected terrorism although no person or group has come forward to disclose why the plane may have been hijacked, or if it even was.

For some relatives of those missing, however, the news the plane was still flying at 8.11am last Saturday is an indication that there may be hope for their missing loved ones.

"It means there's still a chance my parents are alive," Eric Chen Zhi Yang, 15, told Malaysia's New Straits Times. Both his mother and father were on board MH370.