Malaysia to release initial MH370 report Thursday

A Chinese Ilyushin IL -76 aircraft taxis off the runway after landing at Perth International Airport after returning from ongoing search operations for missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 in Perth, Australia. AP FILE PHOTO

KUALA LUMPUR — Malaysia will release a preliminary report Thursday on the disappearance of flight MH370 nearly two months after it went missing, according to a transport ministry official.

Malaysian media reported Transport and Defense Minister Hishammuddin Hussein as saying Wednesday that the report would be made public but gave no other details.

According to state news agency Bernama, Hishammuddin said the report would be similar to the one forwarded to the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO).

“I don’t think there’s going to be any problem to issue it. But we have decided it as a team, that it’s going to be issued tomorrow,” he was quoted as saying.

A transport ministry official confirmed the reports but could not comment further.

Malaysia has been accused by angry relatives of the 239 people aboard the plane of hiding information — a claim the Southeast Asian nation has persistently denied.

Malaysian officials said last week that the report already had been sent to ICAO.

ICAO requires countries to submit a factual run-down of what is known so far in any air crash within 30 days.

Prime Minister Najib Razak last week vowed to release the report “in the name of transparency”.

The Malaysia Airlines flight vanished on March 8 en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.

It is believed to have crashed in the southern Indian Ocean, but a massive hunt for the wreckage has been fruitless so far.
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