Malaysia says 'data deleted' from pilot's simulator

Kuala Lumpur: Data was deleted from the home flight simulator used by the pilot of missing Malaysia Airlines flight 370 and investigators are working to recover it, a Malaysian official said on Wednesday.

In a daily press briefing, Hishammuddin Hussein, Malaysia's minister of transport and defence, also said background checks on all but three of the 239 passengers and crew on board the plane had produced no "information of significance".

MH370 went missing early on March 8 with 239 passengers and crew, spawning a massive international search across Southeast Asia and the Indian Ocean.

Police had removed the simulator from Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah's home last Saturday, after it became clear that the aircraft had likely been deliberately diverted by someone on board.

"Some data had been deleted from the simulator and forensic work to retrieve this data is ongoing," Hishammuddin said, stressing that no evidence had been found implicating Zaharie in any wrongdoing.

The minister also announced that Malaysia had received the results of passenger background checks from all countries with citizens on board -- apart from Ukraine and Russia.

"So far no information of significance on any passengers has been found." he said.

There were two Ukrainians and one Russian on the plane.