Investigators are examining the flight simulator in the home of the pilot of the missing Malaysia Airlines jet, as the government reached out to 15 countries about whether they had any contact with the plane and asking for help in the search.
Police searched the homes of the pilot and co-pilot on Saturday, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak said today.
Capt. Zaharie Ahmad Shah, the 53-year-old pilot of the missing plane, has been described as an affluent aviation buff, with a flight simulator in his home in a gated community.
The details of Malaysian officials' investigation of the pilot and co-pilot comes as two senior law enforcement officials told ABC News that U.S. law enforcement and intelligence officials are focusing on the possibility that at least one of the Malaysia Airlines pilots is responsible for the disappearance of flight MH 370 after new information revealed the plane performed "tactical evasion maneuvers" after it disappeared from radar.
ABC News
The search area for Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 now includes two corridors: one stretching from approximately the border of Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan to northern Thailand and another stretching across Indonesia to the southern Indian Ocean.
U.S. authorities believe only a person with extensive flight or engineering experience could have executed the maneuvers. They also are suspicious of what appeared to be attempts to evade radar.
Shah is a married father of three grown children with more than 18,000 hours of experience in the air.
MORE: A Timeline of What Happened to MH370
The first officer, Fariq Abdul Hamid, 27, joined Malaysia Airlines in 2007 and has 2,000 hours of flying time.
After the plane's transponder -- which reports the plane's location and altitude -- was turned off about 1:20 a.m. last Saturday, the plane was picked up by military radar as it turned back towards Malaysia and passed above Peninsular Malaysia before heading into the Strait of Malacca.
Razak said Saturday that "these movements are consistent with deliberate action by someone on the plane."
After a week of scrutinizing passengers and the crew, one of the officials said there were no indications anyone besides the pilots had the ability to perform the complicated maneuvers done by the plane. Furthermore, officials said they have found no link between the passengers and known terrorist groups and that the plane could have been flown into a densely populated area if the incident was related to terrorism -- but it wasn't.
Another possibility that can't be ruled out is that the pilots were coerced or made to redirect the plane by force.
ABC News aviation expert and former Marine Corps fighter pilot Steve Ganyard said it's possible that the movements made by the plane could mean it was piloted by amateurs not used to flying at night.
Ganyard said a person trying to fly a plane without lights or a horizon could make random turns that may appear to be evasive but were just accidental.
"[A hijacker could] tell the pilot 'turn the transponder off' and hold a gun to his head," Ganyard said. "They could advertently fly out to sea hoping to see some to land to go towards."
Ganyard also noted that the hijackers of United Flight 93 on Sept. 11 raised and lowered the altitude to try and stop the passengers who were storming the cockpit.
Malaysia has now asked for help from Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, Pakistan, Bangladesh, India, China, Myanmar, Laos, Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia, Australia and France, Razak said today.
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