Update | Battery in MH370 black box locator had expired a year before plane went missing
One of the batteries on a black-box locator beacon had expired more than a year before Malaysia Airlines MH370 went missing, according to an interim report released by the official investigation team probing the loss of the jetliner.
One of the batteries on a black-box locator beacon had expired more than a year before Malaysia Airlines MH370 went missing, according to an interim report released by the official investigation team probing the loss of the jetliner.
The 584-page report - released yesterday on the first anniversary of the plane's disappearance - detailed the aircraft's maintenance record, communications systems and personal information about the plane's crew, including their financial situation.
The document found no evidence to implicate the pilot or other crew members. The investigators found no "history of apathy, anxiety or irritability" or changes in the "lifestyle, interpersonal conflict or family stresses" of captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah.
However, buried deep in the report was the revelation that the flight data beacon's battery had been defective since December 2012. They noted that the Boeing 777 underwent 12 maintenance checks without the battery being renewed. Although the voice recorder's beacon was still functional, it is not clear what impact the expired battery would have had on the search. The battery issue was detected only after the plane went missing.
Gao Yongfu, the wife of one of the passengers, was too busy praying at Beijing's Yonghe temple yesterday to read the report. She said she had heard about the battery problem and would explore possible legal action.
Polytechnic University aviation expert Lau Kin-tak said the admission called into question the practices of Malaysia Airlines' maintenance operation. "[The battery's] effectiveness and efficiency may have dropped, which means maintenance procedures for all other components may be questionable," he said.