Final report on MH370 search in July — Loke

The final report on the search for the Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 that went missing in 2014 is expected to be released in July, Transport Minister Anthony Loke Siew Fook said yesterday.

He said the International Civil Aviation Organisation ( ICAO) Annex 13 Safety Investigation Team had been instructed to immediately complete the full report of the search to be shown to the victims’ families before it was published for public consumption.

The independent body involved 19 representatives of seven international air accident investigations by Australia, China, France, Indonesia, Singapore, the United Kingdom and the United States, he said.

“All the data collected from the operations, including the police investigation, will be disclosed to the families of the victims at a special briefing before it is revealed to the public.

“Our commitment is to provide everyone with full access to the reports generated after the government allocated RM500 million for the search from March 2014,” he said at a press conference here.

Flight MH370, carrying 227 passengers and 12 crew, disappeared from radar screens during a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8, 2014.

On Tuesday, Ocean Infinity, the United States technology company specialising in collecting highresolution seabed data, confirmed that its search for the wreckage of Flight MH370 had ended after having collected high-quality data over an area of 112,000 sq km.

The Ocean Infinity search mission in the southern Indian Ocean was based on the ‘no cure, no fee’ term, meaning payment would only be made when debris of the missing aircraft was found and confirmed by a third party.

Loke said the government was prepared to revisit the area of search if experts or certain parties were able to convince the government on new leads after the final report had been published.

On another matter, he said the government did not intend to cancel the project for a Rapid Transit System linking Woodlands in Singapore to Bukit Chagar in Johor Bahru that was proposed in May 2010.

However, the ministry would relook several aspects such as the cost of building the alignment in accordance with the financial position of the government, he said.

Based on records, the design for the construction of the 25-metrehigh RTS bridge across the Johor Strait, from Woodlands to Bukit Chagar, had received the consent of the Sultan of Johor, Sultan Ibrahim Sultan Iskandar.

On the Malaysian Aviation Commission (Mavcom), Loke said the government did not intend to abolish the commission for the moment although it was plagued with several issues including high salaries of the top management.

He confirmed that the Mavcom chairman received a salary of RM85,000 per month, an increase of eight per cent from the RM78,300 that was paid since the commission was set up in 2016.

Loke also said that at yesterday’s Cabinet meeting, Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad instructed that a review be made of the salaries of all chairmen of commissions, government-linked companies and statutory bodies.

On another matter, the minister said Tan Sri Mohd Isa Abdul Samad tendered his resignation as the chairman of the Land Public Transport Commission ( SPAD) two days ago.

Mohd Isa had been given a week to resign after the government announced the disbandment of SPAD on May 23. — Bernama