Kuala Lumpur: Malaysia on Monday said that it may release raw satellite data about missing Flight MH370 on Tuesday, meeting a demand by kin of the 239 people on board the ill-fated jet.
The Malaysian government and UK's Inmarsat had earlier said that they will release raw satellite data used to narrow down the search for the missing Malaysia Airlines plane to the southern Indian Ocean to the public for "greater transparency".
"I can only tell you what I have been told and we will hopefully release the report tomorrow, as this is what have been told to me," Malaysian acting Transport Minister
Hishammuddin Hussein said.
Families of the passengers on board the Boeing 777-200 plane, which disappeared on March 8 over South China Sea, have been demanding that the raw data be made public. The fate of the plane and those on board has become one of the great aviation mysteries of modern times.
Inmarsat, the company whose satellites communicated with the missing plane in its last hours, had said it did not have the authority to release the data. But last week, Inmarsat and Malaysian authorities said that they were trying to make the raw data accessible.
"In line with our commitment towards greater transparency, all parties are working for the release of the data communication logs and the technical description of the analysis for public consumption," Inmarsat and the Malaysian aviation officials had said in a joint statement. Publication of the raw satellite data could allow for independent analysis of what happened on March 8, the day the plane veered sharply off its planned route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing and dropped off radar screens.
Malaysia believes the plane - carrying 239 people, including five Indians - was deliberately diverted by someone on board. The Malaysian government has been criticised for its handling of the tragedy, particularly by the relatives of the Chinese passengers on board the plane, besides being accused of hiding information.
Analysts have said the data could help discount some theories about what happened to the jetliner, and potentially fuel new ones, CNN reported. Malaysia and Australia, the two countries at the forefront of the search, have said that an analysis by international experts of all the available information - including the satellite data - leads them to conclude that the plane ended up in the southern Indian Ocean.
The mystery of the missing plane has baffled aviation and security experts who have so far not succeeded in tracking the aircraft despite deploying hi-tech radar and other underwater gadgets.
Comments
0 comment