MH370: black box battery was dead before take-off
More than a year after Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 vanished en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing new details have emerged about the circumstances surrounding its disappearance. Chief among them is the revelation that the battery on the underwater locator beacon attached to the missing plane's black box had expired in December 2012, 15 months before the doomed aircraft took off.
On Sunday, the first anniversary of flight MH370's disappearance, investigators published an interim statement detailing technical information about the missing plane. Compiled by an international team established by the Malaysian government, the short report is supported by 585 pages of supplementary information which summarises the facts of the case.
This contains information about the MH370's maintenance record, the background of the crew, military radar tracking records and cargo consignments – although much of the detail confirms what experts had already established over the last year. Air traffic controllers lost radar contact with the aircraft less than 40 minutes after it took off from Kuala Lumpur. Based on satellite data and military radar, the plane is believed to have departed dramatically from its planned route and ended up in the Indian Ocean.
On the release of the report, Malaysian prime minister Najib Razak said: "Together with our international partners, we have followed the little evidence that exists. Malaysia remains committed to the search, and hopeful that MH370 will be found."
Here's what we learnt from the interim statement:
Black box battery had expired
The battery for the underwater locator beacon attached to the flight-data recorder expired in December 2012, more than a year before the plane's disappearance, with no evidence that it had been replaced. The report said there was a "definite possibility" that the battery could still operate past its expiry date, but said "it is not guaranteed that it will work or that it would meet the 30-day minimum requirement". Greg Waldron at Flightglobal says this could have limited the search team's ability to locate the aircraft. However, the battery on the locator beacon of the cockpit voice recorder was working.
Last voice transmission clarified
The report states that the aircraft's final nine voice transmissions came from Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah. This includes the final communication "Goodnight Malaysian three-seven-zero" at around 1.19am (local time), a minute or so before the aircraft's transponder ceased transmitting.
No unusual behaviour by crew
Investigators said they found no indications of unusual behaviour by the pilots or cabin crew before the plane took off. "There were no behavioural signs of social isolation, change in habits or interest, self-neglect, drug or alcohol abuse of the captain, first officer and the cabin crew," said the report. The team looked at CCTV recordings of the captain and first officer and said "no significant behavioural changes" were observed. They added that the captain's ability to handle stress at work and home was "good" and he had no known history of apathy, anxiety or irritability. "There were no significant changes in his lifestyle, interpersonal conflict or family stresses," it added. Investigators found no unusual health issues or financial irregularities either.
Batteries not screened
Investigators found that a shipment containing 221kg of lithium ion batteries on the flight was "inspected physically" in Penang, but did not go through additional security screening before it was loaded onto the plane. The batteries were not regulated as dangerous goods because the packing adhered to International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) regulations. The batteries, a known fire hazard on flights, were part of a 2,453kg shipment by Motorola that also contained chargers and radio accessories.
Few answers
Despite the report going into hundreds of pages of detail, critics say it offers few fresh insights into the plane's disappearance and gives no explanation about what happened to the flight once it dropped off the radar. Heinrich Grossbongardt, an independent aviation expert, told German broadcaster Deutsche Welle: "As of today there are absolutely no indications of what may have happened on board. What we can say, is that there is no known technical failure mode, which would explain the aircraft's deviation from its planned flight path. So far as it's humanly possible to tell, we have to assume that it is the result of deliberate action."
