Talking with online newspaper Free Malaysia Today, Najib said authorities had also focused their probe into the political affiliations of MH370 pilot, Zaharie Ahmad Shah.
However, he said the suspicions were not made public despite the then opposition’s attempts to blame his government over its handling of the MH370 episode.
“It would have been deemed unfair and legally irresponsible since the black boxes and cockpit voice recorders had not been found and hence, there was no conclusive proof whether the pilot was solely or jointly responsible,” Najib, who was the prime minister when the plane carrying 239 people vanished six years ago during a midnight flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, told Free Malaysia Today.
Najib said there were several reasons for the authorities to suspect Zaharie’s involvement, including the fact that the plane’s transponders were switched off at a critical moment, when it just left Malaysia’s air space.
He said investigators also took into account Zaharie’s emotional state of mind, as well as a flight simulator he had in his house which aroused suspicions.
MH370’s disappearance is considered one of aviation’s biggest mysteries, and culminated in the longest and most expensive search and rescue mission in history.
