Documents cannot be released yet, families told

BEIJING: Families of the Chinese passengers on board the missing Flight MH370 have been told that documents submitted to facilitate the ongoing investigation cannot be released to the public yet.

They were told that this was a provision of the Convention on International Civil Aviation during a briefing by the high-level Malaysian delegation here yesterday.

The families had requested for the MH370 maintenance report, in particular any information related to the Emergency Locator Transmitters (ELTs), to be handed over to them.

Malaysia Airlines commercial director Dr High Dunleavy responded by telling them that such documents could not be made public until the investigation was over.

“We have records of all the maintenance work, going back to the time when the aircraft was constructed.

“These records are sealed and are now with the investigating authorities,” he said when pressed to confirm that the ELTs were in good working condition when MH370 took off.

Royal Malaysian Air Force Mej-Jen Datuk Affendi Buang chipped in to add that the non-disclosure was in accordance with Annex 13 of the convention, of which most airlines were signatories.

During the rest of the briefing, the families continued to raise more questions on the ELTs, demanding answers on why no signals had been received from the equipment since MH370 went missing on March 8.