- The Washington Times - Saturday, March 15, 2014

Authorities have searched the homes of the pilot and co-pilot of the Malaysia Airlines flight 370 that has been missing for a week.

Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak said investigators believe that the place was deliberately diverted either by the pilots or a passenger and they are turning their investigation towards the people on board the plane.

The pilot, 53-year-old Zaharie Ahmad Shah, is married with three children. Current and former co-workers told Fox News that he loved flying and would never deliberately sabotage the flight.

SEE ALSO: Malaysian leader: Plane’s disappearance deliberate

The first officer, 27-year-old Fariq Abdul Hamid had 2,000 hours of flying experience, but had only recently begun co-piloting the Boeing 777, Fox News reported. He is also seen in photographs with two teenage girls, who he allowed into a plane’s cockpit in 2011, the news agency said.

Investigators have not released any information on evidence recovered in the search.

Communications devices on board were intentionally turned off and the last signal was received about seven and a half hours after takeoff, Mr. Razak said, adding that the plane could have ended up as far as Kazakhstan or deep in the southern Indian Oceans.

Investigators are now trying to track the plane along two corridors, northern and southern, Fox News reported. The north corridor stretches from the border of Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan to northern Thailand, and the southern corridor goes from Indonesia to the southern Indian Ocean.