The Malaysian government has released copy of the preliminary report into the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370, which it submitted to the International Civil Aviation Organisation early last month.
In a statement, acting Transport and Defence Minister Hishammuddin Hussein said the decision to release the report, dated April 9, was made after an internal team of experts have concluded its review of the document.
Alongside the report, the government also released
audio recordings
of the communication between the cockpit and air traffic control on March 8 just before the aircraft lost contact, a map of a number of possible
flight paths
, as well as plane’s
seating plan
and
cargo manifest
.
They also released additional information detailing the actions taken between 1:38am and 06:14am on March 8.
“Last week, the Prime Minister (Najib Abdul Razak) appointed an internal team of experts to review all the information the government of Malaysia possesses regarding MH370, with a view to releasing as much as possible to the general public.
“The prime minister set, as a guiding principle, the rule that as long as the release of a particular piece of information does not hamper the investigation or the search operation, in the interests of openness and transparency, the information should be made public,” Hishammuddin said in the statement.
Recommendation - real-time tracking
The confidential report of Transport Ministry’s Office of the Chief Inspector of Air Accident made one recommendation - for the possible implementation of real-time tracking of commercial flights.
“There have now been two occasions during the last five years when large commercial air transport aircraft have gone missing and their last position was not accurately known.
"This uncertainty resulted in significant difficulty in locating the aircraft in a timely manner,” said the report.
“Therefore, the Malaysian Air Accident Investigation Bureau makes the following safety recommendation to ICAO:
“It is recommended that the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) examine the safety benefits of introducing a standard for real time tracking of commercial air transport aircraft.”
The ICAO is expected to deliberate on the matter at a meeting on May 12-13.
However, the preliminary report, failed to detail the Malaysian military's immediate action in the hours proceeding the plane's disappearance aside a brief mention that search was "extended to the Straits of Malacca".
The Malaysian government had come under intense scrutiny from foreign media and the families of passengers on board Beijing-bound MH370, most of whom are Chinese nationals, for its failure to release the cargo manifest and preliminary report to the ICAO.
Prior to this, the government had only released the transcript of the final communication with air traffic control.
This came after the Department of Civil Aviation corrected its ealier claim that the last words from the cockpit were, "All right, good night" but was instead "Good night, Malaysian three-seven-zero."
Part 1: Actions taken between 1:38am and 6:14am
Part 2: Actions taken between 1:38am and 6:14am
Seating arrangement of passengers
Audio: Communication between MH370 and KL Air Traffic Control
