MAS blames “oversight” for black box battery failure
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Malaysia Airlines has said that an “oversight” led to the expired battery in flight MH370‘s flight data recorder not being replaced before the aircraft’s final flight.
An investigation into MH370’s disappearance, released by Malaysia’s Ministry of Transport on the anniversary of the plane’s disappearance, included the revelation that the battery in the flight data recorder had expired in December 2012 and was not replaced.
Responding to the report, MAS said on Monday that the battery issue was caused by “a maintenance scheduling oversight”. But it argued that the battery in the second black box, the cockpit voice recorder, was fully operational and would have transmitted signals for up to 30 days after the aircraft crashed into the sea.
“Malaysia Airlines welcomes the publication of the… safety investigation for MH370,” the airline said in a statement. “We also want to find all of the answers as fast as possible.
“MAS has supported and cooperated fully with the investigation from the beginning, across several lines of enquiry, and will continue to do so. MAS will act on any specific recommendations made in the final report,” it added.
Every commercial aircraft is fitted with a cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder, both of which should emit signals for 30 days after they come into contact with water. Search teams initially believed they had picked up the black box signals from the depths of Indian Ocean, but these faded and a subsequent underwater search in the area failed to find any trace of the missing aircraft.
Last week, US aviation authorities certified a new type of black box that continues emitting signals for 90 days.
Meanwhile, on the issues of flight MH370’s cargo of lithium-ion batteries, which some have speculated could have been a factor in the incident, MAS said it followed the pre-flight inspection procedures “in line with those defined by the International Civil Aviation Organisation”.
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