The pilot of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 was "clinically depressed" and intentionally killed all 239 passengers when he plunged a Boeing 777-200ER into the Indian Ocean, according to a report published Monday.
Zaharie Ahmad Shah, 53, a Malaysia Airlines captain, was piloting the jet from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8, 2014, when it dived 35,000 feet into the Indian Ocean at 39 minutes after takeoff, The Atlantic reports.
However, Shah — known as "Zaharie" to co-workers, family and friends — was "clinically depressed," based on "a strong suspicion among investigators in the aviation and intelligence communities."
Authorities also say Shah used a flight simulator in one of his homes to test the pattern used in the flight's demise.
The Malaysian Ministry of Transport reported in July 2018 that the cause of Flight 370's disappearance was inconclusive, though several jet pieces washed ashore in the Indian Ocean in 2015 and 2016.
"The Malaysian police report held back on divulging what was known about the captain, Zaharie," the Atlantic reports. "No one was surprised."
The report includes comments from "people who knew him or knew about him" in Kuala Lumpur — and they described Shah as an "often lonely and sad" man who lived alone after "his wife had moved out" and who spent "a lot" of time on social media.
Regarding the simulator, FBI investigators found forensic evidence that Shah "experimented with a flight profile roughly matching that of MH370," with fuel running out over the Indian Ocean.
On the simulator, Shah "advanced the flight manually in multiple stages" — instead of letting it play out in a single flight pattern from Malaysia to Beijing — "repeatedly jumping the flight forward and subtracting the fuel as necessary until it was gone," the Atlantic reports.
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