Independent investigator will head investigation into missing flight MH370, pledges Malaysia

An independent investigator will be appointed to lead a team that will try to determine what happened to flight MH370, Malaysia's Acting Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein said yesterday.

He said the team would include three groups. An "airworthiness group" would examine "maintenance records, structures and systems"; an "operations group" would examine "flight recorders and meteorology"; and a "medical and human factors group" would examine "psychology, pathology and survival factors".

The team will have experts from several nations, including Australia, China, the United States, Britain and France.

A multinational team is already trying to find floating debris and detect faint sound signals from the plane's data recorders that could lead them to the plane's location.

Hishammuddin said there were no new satellite images or data that could provide new leads for searchers. The focus now was fully on the ocean search, he said.

He said the cost of the search was immaterial compared to providing solace for the families of those on board by establishing what happened.