FBI expects to recover deleted data from Malaysia pilot’s flight simulator
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WASHINGTON — FBI Director James B. Comey said Wednesday that technical experts at the bureau’s laboratory in Quantico, Va., “very shortly” will be able to retrieve computer files that were deleted from a home flight simulator by the pilot of the missing Malaysian airliner.
“I get briefed on it every morning,” Comey told a House subcommittee on appropriations, suggesting that the deleted files may provide new clues to Malaysia Airlines Flight 370’s disappearance March 8. “We have teams working on it around the clock. I expect it to be done very shortly, within a day or two.”
Comey, under questioning from Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Burbank), added that the FBI is “pleased with the level of cooperation” his agents have received from their counterparts in Kuala Lumpur, the Malaysian capital, in helping to investigate the airplane’s disappearance.
He further stressed that unlike Malaysia, U.S. airport security officials thoroughly check passports before allowing passengers to board planes. In the case of Flight 370, two of the 227 passengers used stolen passports.
“That’s something that’s routinely required on all flights into and out of the United States,” the director said. “I’m confident that information is being checked.”
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