KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia - A flight engineer who was among the passengers on the missing jet is being investigated by Malaysian police as they focus on the pilots and anyone else on board who had technical flying knowledge, a senior police official told Reuters.
The aviation engineer is Mohd Khairul Amri Selamat, 29, a Malaysian who has said on social media he had worked for a private jet charter company.
"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. The report could not immediately be confirmed by NBC News.
Malaysian investigators are trawling through the backgrounds of the pilots, crew and ground staff who worked on the missing Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777-200ER for clues as to why someone on board flew it hundreds, or perhaps thousands, of miles off course.
No trace of the plane has been found more than a week after it vanished but investigators believe it was diverted by someone with deep knowledge of the plane and of commercial navigation.
A flight engineer is responsible for overseeing systems on a plane during flights to confirm they are working correctly and to make repairs if necessary. As an engineer specializing in executive jets, Khairul would not necessarily have all the knowledge needed to divert and fly a large jetliner.