KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia – The first comprehensive report into the mystery of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 on Sunday revealed that the battery of an underwater locator beacon had expired more than a year before the plane vanished on March 8, 2014.
Apart from that anomaly, the detailed report devoted pages after pages to describe the complete normality of the flight, shedding little light on aviation’s biggest mystery.
“The sole objective of the investigation is the prevention of future accidents or incidents, and not for the purpose to apportion blame or liability,” the report said.
The significance of the expired battery on the beacon of the Flight Data Recorder was not immediately apparent, except indicating that searchers would have had lesser chance of locating the aircraft in the Indian Ocean, where it is believed to have crashed, even if they were in its vicinity. However, the report said that the battery on the locator beacon of the cockpit voice recorder was working.
The two instruments are critical in any crash because they record cockpit conversation and flight data, leading up to the end of the flight.
The 584-page report by an independent investigation group went into minute details of the crew’s lives — their medical and financial records, their training before detailing the aircraft’s service record — as well as maintenance schedule, weather, communications systems and other aspects that showed nothing unusual except for the one previously undisclosed fact of the battery’s expiry date.
It said that according to maintanence records, the battery on the beacon attached to the Flight Data Recorder expired in December 2012. “There is some extra margin in the design to account for battery life variability and ensure that the unit will meet the minimum requirement,” it said.
“However, once beyond the expiry date, the (battery’s) effectiveness decreases so it may operate, for a reduced time period until it finally discharges,” the report said. While it is possible the battery will operate past the expiry date, “it is not guaranteed that it will work or that it would meet the 30-day minimum requirement,” said the report.