Civil Aviation head resigns a day after MH370 safety probe released

PETALING JAYA: Datuk Seri Azharuddin Abd Rahman has resigned as Civil Aviation Authority of Malaysia (CAAM) chairman.

In a statement on Tuesday (July 31), Azharuddin said he decided to resign "after much thought and contemplation".

He said the resignation would be effective fourteen days from the date of the resignation notice, which is Tuesday (July 31).

The announcement comes a day after the release of the MH370 safety investigation report.

"While the Report does not suggest that the accident is caused by the Department of Civil Aviation then, nevertheless, there were some very apparent findings with regards to the operations of the Kuala Lumpur Air Traffic Control Centre, where it was stated that the Air Traffic Controller did not comply with certain standard operating procedures," he said.

He said he had tried his "level best" to assist in the search for the missing MH370 for the past four years, and is "resolute" to find the answers for its disappearance.

The team investigating the safety aspects of MH370 concluded that they were unable to determine the real cause of the disappearance of the plane but did not rule out the possibility that "unlawful interference" by a third party had caused the incident.

The Malaysian International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) Annex 13 Safety Investigation Team, which released its 449-page report after a four-year wait, also allayed concerns that their findings were final.

Flight MH370, which was travelling from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, vanished on March 8, 2014, with 227 passengers and 12 crew on board.

The disappearance of the aircraft has been dubbed one of the greatest aviation mysteries of all time.