KUALA LUMPUR, March 17 — The father of aircraft engineer Mohd Khairul Amri Selamat defended his son today, insisting the 29-year-old who was on board flight MH370 could not have been involved in the plane’s disappearance.
According to The Star Online, 60-year-old Selamat Omar looked distressed when asked to comment on reports of his son’s possible link to the missing aircraft and said that “my son would have done no wrong”.
“No authority contacted me to say they will be searching my son’s house.
“Even if they do, we have nothing to hide. They can come search the house if need be,” Selamat was quoted as saying.
He added that he does not know the name of the company where his son works, only that the youth handles private jets and often travels to countries like Sydney, India and the United States.
Investigators on the case of the missing plane have refocused their probe on the backgrounds of the 239 people on board MH370, following confirmation last weekend that the Boeing 777 aircraft had been deliberately flown off-course.
The Beijing-bound flight has been missing for more than a week since March 8, after it disappeared from civilian radar 40 minutes after taking off at 12.41am.
Military and satellite data have shown that MH370 had been piloted deliberately hundreds of miles off-course to the west of the peninsula, following waypoints and despite flying erratically, was clearly being handled by a person with aviation knowledge and experience.
The evidence immediately forced investigators to revisit the possibility of a hijacking or terrorism, which had previously been described as most unlikely.
Apart from the captain and his co-pilot, the police are also looking closely at Mohd Khairul, believed to be only other person on board who has technical flying knowledge.
“Yes, we are looking into Mohd Khairul as well as the other passengers and crew. The focus is on anyone else who might have had aviation skills on that plane,” a senior police official with knowledge of the investigations told Reuters today.
According to a picture on Khairul’s Facebook account in 2011, the youth said he was an employee of Execujet in Malaysia.
“We can’t disclose anything. We want to protect the family’s privacy,” an official at the company’s Malaysian office was quoted as saying by Reuters.
Yesterday, Inspector-General of Police (IGP) Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar said all 227 passengers on the flight were cleared by several security agencies.
Among the countries whose security agencies have given the passengers a clean bill of health include India and China, whose nationals made up the bulk of the 239 people on board.
But the Malaysian police chief said the ongoing investigation, which has been classified under Section 130C of the Penal Code dealing with hijacking, sabotage, terrorism, and all offences under the Aviation Offences Act, still encompassed all those aboard the flight.
“There have been no negative records,” Khalid told reporters here today, referring to the passengers.
When asked if this meant that the focus of the investigation would shift to pilot Zaharie Ahmad Shah and co-pilot Fariq Abdul Hamid, Khalid insisted that the probe will cover everyone aboard the Boeing 777-200ER.
Acting Transport Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein, who was also at the press conference, said that according to MAS, Zaharie and Fariq did not request to fly together on MH370.
“I cannot comment on speculative theories as to what might have caused the deviation from the original flight path, as I do not wish to prejudice the on-going investigation,” he said.
“Out of respect to the families, and the process itself, we must wait for the investigation to run its course,” Hishammuddin added.
