Missing flight pilots refused to fly together: Malaysian minister

A security guard checks a car at a main gate of the missing Malaysia Airlines pilot Zaharie Ahmad Shah's house in Shah Alam, outside Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Saturday, March 15, 2014. Malaysian police have already said they are looking at the psychological state, the family life and connections of pilot Zaharie, 53, and co-pilot Fariq Abdul Hamid, 27. Both have been described as respectable, community-minded men. The Malaysian jetliner missing for more than a week had its communications deliberately disabled and its last signal came about 7 1/2 hours after takeoff, meaning it could have ended up as far as Kazakhstan or into the southern reaches of the Indian Ocean, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak said Saturday. (AP Photo)

The two pilots of the Beijing-bound Malaysia Airlines flight, that went missing March 8, had refused to fly together, Malaysia's acting Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein Sunday said citing the airlines authorities.

Police searched the house of Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah Saturday, soon after the country's Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak confirmed that the plane was suspected to have been diverted deliberately and could have gone far south towards the Indian Ocean or northwards towards Kazakhstan, the Malaysian Star reported.

The investigation will now include the ground staff along with the crew and passengers of the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar said at a press conference.

The government has also said that investigation of the two pilots homes is a routine procedure and officials are still in the process of examining a flight simulator that the captain had at his home.

Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 with 239 passengers and crew on board vanished mysteriously about an hour after taking off from Kuala Lumpur March 8.

Earlier, it was presumed to have crashed off the Vietnamese coast in the South China Sea.

The 227 passengers on the flight included five Indians, 154 Chinese and 38 Malaysians.

Contact with the plane was lost along with its radar signal when it was flying over the air traffic control area of Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam.

A multinational intensive search has so far failed to locate the plane.

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