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Maldives islanders saw a "low flying jumbo jet" on the day the Malaysia Airlines plane disappeared, according to reports.
The Haveeru news website has reported that witnesses saw a plane flying low at around 6.15am on March 8.
It was flying north to south-west, according to the report.
"I've never seen a jet flying so low over our island before," a witness told the organisation.
"We've seen seaplanes, but I'm sure that this was not one of those. I could even make out the doors on the plane clearly.
"It's not just me either, several other residents have reported seeing the exact same thing. Some people got out of their houses to see what was causing the tremendous noise too."
The news came as it emerged that investigators have discovered the runways of five airports near the Indian Ocean loaded into Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah’s home-made flight simulator.
An unnamed source told the local paper the Berita Harian that while it was too early to make any conclusions on the new finding, it was still considered an important element in the probe on the whereabouts of the plane and its 239 people.
“The simulation programmes are based on runways at the Male International Airport in Maldives, an airport owned by the United States (Diego Garcia), and three other runways in India and Sri Lanka, all have runway lengths of 1,000 metres.
“We are not discounting the possibility that the plane landed on a runway that might not be heavily monitored, in addition to the theories that the plane landed on sea, in the hills, or in an open space,” the source was quoted as saying.