Senior
U.S. lawmakers on Sunday said investigators had found no evidence thus far
pointing to terrorism in the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight
MH370 three weeks ago, and that it was critical to find the plane to
understand what happened on board.
House Intelligence
Committee Chairman Mike Rogers and Senate Intelligence
Committee Chairman Dianne Feinstein, speaking on Sunday talk shows,
said they had seen no evidence of foul play.
"I have seen nothing yet that
comes out of the investigation that would lead me to conclude that (this was)
... anything other than a normal flight that something happened and something
went wrong," Rogers told "Fox News Sunday."
U.S. officials close to the
investigation said the FBI examined data it received from a home-made flight
simulator and other computer equipment used by MH370's pilots, but found
nothing illuminating.
More than two dozen countries and 60
aircraft and ships continued to search for the missing Boeing
777 airliner on Sunday, days before the batteries in the locators attached
to its black boxes are set to die.
The Malaysian
government has said it believes the plane's course was altered as a
deliberate act, but it remains unclear by whom, or whether the change was made
in response to a technical fault.
Rogers said U.S. investigators would
conduct a detailed forensic analysis of the computer equipment, even as they
continue to investigate the crew and passengers of the plane, but he warned it
would take "a tremendous amount of time."
"We're just going to have to be
patient ... as this thing unfolds and the only way to really find out what
happened is to try to find the airframe itself or as much of it is intact so
they can do the forensic investigation on that," Rogers said.
Feinstein echoed those remarks on
CNN's "State of the Union" program, saying she had not seen any
evidence indicating a terrorist act brought the airplane down.
Asked if she had seen higher
resolution satellite images of the possible debris identified in
the Indian Ocean than those made public, Feinstein said she had not
and suspected intelligence officials did not have such images.
She said the lack of sharpness in
the images made public could be linked to the sophistication of the satellite
that gathered the imagery, but declined to provide further details.
"You have to understand
that American intelligence doesn't gear itself to be ready for plane
crashes. That is not its job.
Our job is terrorism and missile
defense and that kind of thing," she said.
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