Mick Rooney, aka @Airinvestigate, has released further documents from the secret Royal Malaysian Police investigation into the disappearance of MH370. I asked him if he could tell me anything about how the documents were sourced or why they are being released now, but he says that he is bound by an oath of confidentiality not to discuss further.
Those familiar with recent events surrounding the case might be able to hazard a guess.
Here are the files:
data-from-flight-simulator-computer
This 14-page document includes technical information about the data found on Zaharie’s flight simulator hard drives. It appears that the machine crashed multiple times in the months before MH370’s disappearance. The document also includes a log of when the flight sim was played, the last time being on March 15, 2014, a week after the plane disappeared (presumably this reflects activity by investigators.) Prior to that, the sim had last been played on February 20, two weeks before the disappearance. This suggests that Zaharie was not using his flight simulator to practice vanishing in the weeks before his disappearance.
data-from-prelim-exam-report-translated-from-malay
This 7-page document seems to have been machine-translated from Malay, and appears to describe a preliminary investigation of the computer hard drives by a Malaysian police technician. It lists the various hard drives found with the flight-sim computer. Among the information recovered were passwords and account information for Zaharie’s hobbies and interests, as well as information about an online bookstore, Zaharie’s various social media accounts, and online shopping. Of particular note, investigators found a deleted folder labeled “777TwinTower” which contains pictures of a Malaysia Airlines plane flying toward the Kuala Lumpur city center. Given widely held suspicion that Zaharie took MH370 on a suicide flight, and that fact that terrorists flew two planes into New York’s twin towers in 2001, this will no doubt raise eyebrows. However, this document notes that: “These images have been taken from the computer screen to play a simulated airplane. The assessment believed that the owners of these computers have taken one of those images for the purpose of being used as an icon on the account.” That is to say, an innocent interpretation of this folder and its contents would be that Zaharie, a proud Malaysian 777 pilot, wanted to create an image of his plane flying past an iconic Malaysian landmark.
After a section discussing the seven deleted points from the flight simulator, which have been much discussed in this forum, the report concludes with a brief Summary: “The results of the examination of the goods were found that no any activity outside the common. The overall computer use to host gaming Flight Simulator only. Nor has any information source which directly indicates there any plans to eliminate MH370 found.”
This 31-page document appears to contain all of the saved data in the seven above-mentioned flight simulator points. Hopefully independent flight simulator experts will look it over and render an opinion for the rest of us who lack the expertise to properly grapple with it.
Overview
How does this new information alter our understanding of the MH370 mystery?
For me, it is noteworthy that so little incriminating information was found on any of Zaharie’s computers, even (especially) among the deleted files. The way we use computers these days, they are essentially extensions of our brains. Any passing fancy that drifts through our head is likely to be reflected in our internet search history, in notes we write to ourselves, and so on. When Andreas Lübitz was in the throes of his final mental dissolution, he spent a great deal of time online reading about mental disorders and researching ways to commit suicide. It’s all right there to be seen. Yet on Zaharie’s computer there is nothing. Indeed, he seems to have been spending his time prior to the disappearance doing things like making instructional DIY home-repair videos and pretending to fly an antique DC-3 airplane. Not, it would seem, the behavior of someone contemplating his imminent extinction.
In the light of this newly released information, it is easier to understand why the Malaysian police came to the conclusion that nothing about Zaharie’s behavior points to him being the culprit.
There is also some discussion start on Reddit. Victor says:
“People have assumed that the simulated flight to the SIO that was deleted from MK25 was created using FSX and a PMDG 777-200LR model. This is true of what was installed on MK26, which was the primary drive for the computer. In fact, the deleted flight was created using FS2004 (aka FS9) and using the PSS 777-200LR model. This model was created by the company Phoenix Simulation Software, which is now called BlackBox Simulation. FS9 was installed on drive MK25 on Dec 23, 2013, and uninstalled on Feb 20, 2014.”
I am trying to understand if the Flight Sim games show underwater terrain such at Broken Ridge. Looks like two software package are used by Z: MS FSX and Phoenix FS2004.
Continued from previous without catching up:
Ge Rijn, @DennisW:
I think we can give Z the benefit of a doubt concerning the twin towers thing. It won’t cost us anything. It, the plane, didn’t crash inte those towers after all, and stayed clearly away from them, although nothing could have stopped the one at the controls if he had chosen so. One has to realise that Z would never have done that, because it would stigmatize him and his family for centuries. That is a deed for a fanatic familyless sparsely bearded desert/mountain economy youth with no future and 39 virgins waiting on the other side — “sold” to him by the local association of better-bearded desert/mountain economy confidence tricksters. A family father might play around as much as you can imagine with the game, without getting an inch closer to doing it for real. The deletion is logical in that respect too. It has the appearance of immorality and/or immaturity, and will be perceived as such by whomever, but it is really not as long as it is private and not planning for the/a real event. Whether the latter has obviously not been decided. And there might be a harmless explanation.
But it doesn’t really speak against him being the culprit either. If Z did it, then he did it in a “not-Petronas Towers”‘ way, didn’t he? That is in a way exactly the same thing, but invertedly. The non-herostratic way. Of course, that will need to be proven. As before.
Maybe it will become clearer what that was about, making a file.
And now I will read what Jeff writes…
@Jeff:
I came pretty close to the RMP interpretation with the Christmas card guess, didn’t I? Well, you can hardly accuse them for trying to pin it on him nomatterwhat.
Do we need to fear that the many harddrive crashes in any way could be a way of masking reformatting or exhange of discs, i.e. destruction of older data that would be the traces you mentioned conc. the GW pilot?
I must say this in a sense is getting fishier by the hour. If the RMP won’t set this guy up, then who will? Jokes aside, where will this end?
@Ge Rijn:
“…I’m definitely not throwing a red herring into the pot. It was just something that crossed my eye reading this report…”
I’m not accusing you of throwing the possible red herring, as this would have been done by those who want to cause misdirection when people are starting to stray in the direction of finding the truth. You we’re merely passed the message onto here, as others will do in turn on other fora.
Sorry if my comments caused you any offence, but I think it is important that we continue to investigate the recent leaked release about Fariq’s phone connection and why we have so few hard facts about him or his family.
@Johan, You did! I agree, the case doesn’t exactly seem to be hurtling towards a conclusion.
@Johan
“If the RMP won’t set this guy up, then who will? ”
The Malays have absolutely no intention of blaming Z. Their interests are much better served by avoiding that, and perpetrating the mystery.
If you blame Z, the next logical question is why did Z do it? From the Malay perspective that is the worst question that could possibly arise. They do not want to go there under any circumstances.
In answer to your question, I will gladly set him up. I have virtually no doubt that Z is the guilty party.
@DennisW, ATSB search officials shared your sense of certainty. It led them to promise the Australian taxpayer that their $100+ millions would be well spent and the plane would certainly be found.
The moral of the story: feelings of certainty are not to be trusted, especially when it comes to MH370.
@DennisW, @Ge Rijn:
May I recommend Battlefield1. No Gustavus Adolphus 🙂 but astonishing WWI battle scenes in photography-quality full-dimensional, fully equipped environments. It is a bit like making and living your own movie. And ruining the city around you while at it.
@Jeff
The ATSB debacle has nothing to do with Shah’s guilt or innocence. It was pure stupidity from the get-go. In fact, like the IG, the ATSB has been very quiet relative to causality other than referring to a mysterious hypoxia event. They certainly never blamed Shah.
The moral to the story for me, is that there was never anyone with world class credentials leading the investigation. A Richard Feynman type, who lead the 0-ring disaster investigation, comes to mind. We have had nothing but a parade of nondescript administrators and career government employees who let the Malays lead them around by the nose.
Some background by Mick Rooney on his leaks:
http://www.mh370investigation.com/2016/09/secret-mh370-investigative-documents.html
The full report could be released in a redacted form, of course,such that most of the passengers who were of no concern had their personal details blanked, leaving only relevant information on the crew and likely suspects (such as the Iranians, the Ukranians).
@DennisW, Given your absolutely certainty of your correctness, it would be a valuable contribution if you generated a route that Zaharie might have taken, showing the turns and power alterations he made over the SIO, along with an explanation for each. I know that you a are big proponent of the primacy of motive, so helping us understand the motive behind such seemingly irrational and random-seeming acts would be an enormous boon for the acceptance of your viewpoint.
@all
Interesting discussion of why the entire police report is held confidential (probably due to personal info on PAX and crew).
http://www.mh370investigation.com/2016/09/secret-mh370-investigative-documents.html
“We are all divided; everyone seems to be pulling in different directions based on personal motivations, pet theories, agendas, egos, and filled with entrenched likes and dislikes of characters and personas. There is enough of a disconnect in the official investigation without us adding further to it on the sidelines. We need to all work together no matter our disagreements and differences.”
@Jeff
Sure. I would be happy to do that. I’ve been rather bored with analytics lately. Timing is bad, so it will be a few days. I am planning to attend an award ceremony in Pasadena this week. This man is a good friend and early mentor of mine.
http://www.galcit.caltech.edu/ahs/
I am leaving tomorrow, and will spend a couple of days with my daughter in San Luis Obispo on my way to Pasadena. She teaches computer science at Cal Poly, and was recently awarded “Professor of the Year” recognition for the 2nd year in a row. It has gone to her head, and I need to let some air out of her balloon. Like most geeks here, she has a difficult time finding her way out of the house in the morning.
@DennisW:
It figures you are asking for a Nobel Prize winning physicist with a human kind-threatening weapon on his consciusness, and immemorialized with a rubber packing. I don’t think neither Australia nor Malaysia have many of those. And where immortality has been speculated to belong to those ready to roll up their sleeves and pants and pick up or set afloat real or dummy parts of airliner wings. On faraway beaches. You are probably right that the investigation fell between chairs at some early point, probably due to its immensity, the vast area involved due to the few data, and the many nations involved. And the apparently sparse data seeping out of Malaysia.
I’d take anyone any day that would stand up and say, “Hey, here is where we are, this is what we will do”, but who would want to do that when there is no material fatigue in sight? And the money is spent? As long as we are looking at a weird suicide act by a politically bewildered individual or a covert special agents’ operation or a drunken Chinese falling over the instruments and setting his suitcase of prize-winning firecrackers on fire in the cockpit, the really intelligent people and their court of followers might hesitate to take the contract.
@Jeff
Just to be clear. It is not important to me for anyone to accept my point of view. There are many paths that one could create, and any particular path has nothing to recommend it over any other.
As usual, you are fixated on the notion that a path needs to have seemingly arbitrary twists and turns to end up outside the priority search area. This notion is not true as evidenced by the recent path of Iannello and Godfrey. In fact, I like that path, and will generate one parallel to it with Cocos (Freddie’s fascination) as the waypoint. The logic being that Cocos was selected, and the AP continued on a magnetic track (per SK999) after passing that waypoint due to unanticipated complications on the aircraft.
@DennisW, The reason I want you to go down this road is that we currently disagree about what might have happened to MH370, and I would like us to agree. We are both intelligent, rational people, and so we should be able to hash out our differences logically.
So I am very keen for you to try out this exercise and to see where it goes.
TBill posted at 10:23 AM, quoting VictorI:
Does that mean that the fuel quantities posted by Jeff are correct, and those later provided by VictorI for the 777-ER are not?
@Johan
I don’t blame Feynman for nuclear weapons any more than I blame your Alfred Nobel for inventing dynamite (for which the French criticized him and motivated him to establish the Nobel prizes with his estate).
The only beef I have with Nobel is not making the awards more clear which allowed to Swedes to create a Nobel Prize in Economics after his death which I regard to be blasphemous.
@DennisW:
…And after finally fishing up the CVR all it contains is two hours of Shah and the Chinese emptying the liquor supply, cracking bad jokes and singing Hello Dolly, gagnam style.
Nice to hear about your daugther. She is doing all right. That sounds like a nice trip. Enjoy.
@DennisW
All we hear from you is Z did it. Accept Jeff Wise’s challenge and see if you can convince. If not you have been in your own wacko list the whole time.
@Gysbreght
I certainly cannot answer that, but over on Reddit, Victor added another paragraph you might want to look at. This is still a work in progress for Victor. The other thing impacting fuel is the cell phone call, but only if MH370 was at low altitude.
I would like to know if the Sim models capture the Sun, Moon, Twilight etc, in addition to my prior question about the undersea terrain.
I cannot find any photos on the Internet of a commercial jet engine flame out specifically caused by fuel starvation, at day or night. I am imagining it could be a spectacle at night, but who knows?
@Trond
I don’t see how any particular path I would create would have any bearing on whether or not Z did it. It will just be another path to look at. Some people here seem have a strange way of logically connecting things.
No matter, I have been wanting to fiddle with a Cocos path and extension for awhile, I just was too lazy to start on it.
@Jeff Wise
Good luck
@DennisW: 🙂 It is blasphemous and the prize committee for that one is forced to choke on that (in Sweden) every time the prize is brought up. That borders to worse than no prize at all. It is always named with its tag-on, “the prize in Economics to the memory of AN”, and differentiated from the real Nobel Prizes.
We ususally say that the Chinese invented the dynamite but Nobel invented some more. Not new perhaps.
Feynman would probably have been fine, but maybe they don’t make people like that any more.
One of the recurring worries around the Nobel Prize was for long which literary star’s career it would destroy. The receivers of the Prize in Literature rarely wrote anything significant at all after coming away with fame, attention and prize money. And the angst-ridden ones wouldn’t know how to handle their own sudden success. The Swedish Academy might have had that in mind when chosing Bob Dylan this year, who apparently is just as morose after selling millions of records and gathering tens of thousands at concerts as when he played the harmonica only to himself. Seemingly a safe selection in that respect. Somewhat unpredictedly, they just might have killed Leonard Cohen instead. Peace be with him. I think we all are looking forward to Dylan addressing the table guests with his Nobel Prize speech.
It should have been “conscience” but you got that.
@DennsW
wow, enjoy the event; it looks like wonderfull society, according to video “History of AHS Wings award” from your link; to some extent, it links also here, as this guy led the 777 “Working together” team
http://www.boeing.com/history/pioneers/philip-m-condit.page
@TBill
I know that the FlightGear sim has accurate astronomical data, considering it’s free software I’d expect MS FS to do the same, or I’d want my money back! As for ocean floor terrain, FG doesn’t, and I doubt FS does, either. One could easily correlate a marker with geographical data if you wanted to hit a deep target…
@Jeff Wise @others
I believe this ‘777twintower’ folder deserves some more serious attention and better interpretation.
The new report specifically states on the ‘777twintower’ folder;
‘..pictures of computer simulation and installation
the images show a MAS aircraft that fly heading towards Kuala Lumpur Tower and KLCC.’
Not to the ‘Kuala Lumpur city center’ but specific towards the Kuala Lumpur Tower.
Then:
“These images have been taken from the computer screen to play a simulated airplane. The assessment believed that the owners of these computers have taken one of those images for the purpose of being used as an icon on the account.”
This means IMO Zaharie took exsisting pictures of MAS aircraft flying towards the KL-Tower from owners of other computers.
He did not create those images himself.
He only used them to play a simulated airplane. Which means IMO he ‘played’ a simulated flight towards the Kuala Lumpur Tower and saved those data in a specific folder named ‘777twintower’.
And this makes sence for why should you use your flight simulator to create ‘iconic pictures’? Pictures that were allready available and saved by Zaharie from computers of other owners?
A flight simulator is not build to fabricate ‘iconic pictures’..
Anyway it could be quite important IMO if the details of this ‘777twintower’-folder were also made public and not swept under the carpet like something completely irrelevant.
small correction; Not ONLY to the ‘Kuala Lumpur City center’..
@DrBobbyUlich. Much obliged for clarifying the Gordon interpretation but I note that this remains in discord with the ATSB’s 90%. I cannot think why they would have shaved the probability sides off or why they would not have said so if they did.
The 90% suggests that if not found now, it is quite unlikely the wreckage is in the probability area, while Dr Gordon’s suggests it is really quite possible it is there still.
The difference to me, in political terms (at least), is marked. One would imply that in ceasing searching the Governments would be saying,“…we have done all that is reasonable and that’s it for now”. The other suggests the job has been given away prematurely. Which is it the ATSB and Ministers would see as applying? A rhetorical question but I try to follow what might be perceptions by decision makers and what influences they are under.
As an aside, one of the aspects of the Review that I would like to see cleared up is what was its purpose and scope. As to the latter, did it include consideration of further routes? Again rhetorical, this would draw from its purpose.
All that aside, yes the concept of fuel probabilities applying in the way hoped for of drift analysis, once (and if) refined satisfactorily, obviously would be worthwhile; that is, if do-able! This would lift fuel consumption usefulness a good deal compared to it being a “go/no-go gauge” as both it and drift analysis now are.
Just on the difference in engine fuel consumptions, I take it you are aware of the FI ACARS engine readouts in climb and cruise. You may have referred to this and I have forgotten.
@Ge Rijn
“This means IMO Zaharie took exsisting pictures of MAS aircraft flying towards the KL-Tower from owners of other computers.
He did not create those images himself.”
The document (as Jeff says) appears to have been machine-translated from Malay and is full of slight English language inaccuracies including grammar, use of plural etc.. You could be right but I would hesitate to come to that (or any) conclusion from wording in such a document. Sorry to disagree.
I wonder if any more of the secret investigation documents will shed light on the role of that Singaporean AWACS during the disappearance of MH370???
@Jeff
So I decided to take a quick pass at your suggestion. I was curious about it in any case, so your comment motivated me to get off my butt. I have not done careful checking, so I apologize in advance if any errors small or large have crept in.
http://tmex1.blogspot.com
@Ge Rijn
Trust me. I am not “bagging” on you. Flights into something like the Petronas Towers are inviting to anyone with a simulator. I think you are reading way too much into it.
@DennisW, @GeRijn, If MH370 did not dissapear in the manner it did, with ZS as the captain, I would agree that the towers could mean nothing. However, the aircraft did dissapear and IMHO, the towers could be important/suspect. Until proper translations come out, I think we need to keep an open mind. I am also very interested (as per TBill) in Victor working with FX team n the simulator. He was very conclusive in saying they will proove it was not broken as many say.
@DennisW
Nice work and impressively fast.
OK, so you are probably just a little outside of Mike Chillit’s pin and search area centered at 25.5S and 101.2E. He plans to use MHAS Sydney for a $4M search. I thought maybe you were going to give us magnetic heading after a Cocos discontinuity, which might curve your path to the right more into Chillit’s search zone?
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CxQtu39UUAAtcBw.jpg
@Keffertje
Whatever. I have been at this long enough to know a waste of time when I see it. What are you going to do with the “towers” info? It is what it is. MH370 did not crash into the towers. What else is there to know? Good f’ing grief.
@Ge Rijn, @Jeff, ZS was a very intelligent man, on that we can agree I think. IF, he is in any way involved, I doubt he would leave anything incriminating on his computer at home. Like everyone these days he would have a notebook/ipad that he had with him at all times. If he wanted to execute searches he would do so using hotel wifi as he travelled around. What he was not able to take with him was the simulator so the only items that could be of relevance are the simulations and the files he deleted.
Correction: crew that found HMAS Sydney
@DennisW, You must be a proud parent 🙂 No doubt she takes after you! My son started surgery internships just yesterday. 6 years under his belt and 6 more years to go (psychiatry/neurology). Safe travels and don’t burst her balloon.
@Stendec
Thank you…I ordered a used copy of FS2004 from EBay. I have a spare older computer I can try to use it on.
@DennisW, Perhaps the towers was plan A after a botched negotiation, and SIO was plan B. That is my line of thought.
@DennisW, So what’s your explanation of the 18:40 BFO?
@Keffertje
If Shah was as intelligent as people think, he would have passed a degausser over the drives in his simulator literally erasing information permanently. Everyone skilled in the art knows that deleting a file merely deletes a pointer to those sectors which will not be altered until they are over-written by the operating system. Even reformatting leaves “pecker tracks” if you want to look hard enough.
I regard Shah as almost as dumb as the ATSB.
@Jeff
“So what’s your explanation of the 18:40 BFO?”
Useless without a BTO value to accompany it. You cannot infer anything from the 18:40 BFO.
@Keffertje
Re: proud parent
Yes, I am proud of my daughter because she is a really good person.
Relative to academia she followed the path of least resistance. I recruited year after year at Cal Poly figuring I had the inside track to the best and brightest, which I did. I was never able to recruit a single person. They all took job offers from Google, Facebook, LinkedIn,… where you can write html code all day and knock down a good salary without coding to the metal and needing good math skills.
That describes my daughter to a tee. Take the path of least resistance. Kids today…???
@Dennis,indeed, kids today . No doubt she learned from the best. Path of least resistance is more rewarding though. My son is also determined even if it is a long haul and hugely demanding. Enjoy your trip!
@Keffertje
I look forward to it. Although after a Polyland visit I usually could benefit from dialysis. This trip will be no different. I am sure of that.
It is a long haul for your son. You have to have a lot of respect for that career choice. There are many many easier (and less stressful) ways to make a living i.e. being a professor of computer science.
@DrBobbyUlich. For,”..FI ACARS engine readouts in climb and cruise”, read, “…..take off and climb”.
In regards to Zaharies “777Twin tower” folder..
I find nothing suspicious about a few images taken from his flight sim..
I myself have taken screen shots of various buildings when I’m using my flight sim..
You’d find this pretty normal from most passionate flight sim users..
@Tbill,
‘re- Mike Chillit. I never even knew this was into plan. So thanks posting..
While hopeful and confident they’re on the right track, area which I believe MH370s final resting place is..
But given small budget they have to work with..The area they plan to search maybe too small.As any slight mis calculation may result in not finding MH370…