Malaysia Airlines MH370 News Update: Search Continues a Year After Aircraft's Disappearance

A year after Malaysia Airlines flight MH370's disappearance, many questions still remained unanswered, with the most pressing of these being, "Where is the plane?"

In recognition of the anniversary of the plane's disappearance, the Malaysian government has released a 584-page report detailing the information that has been gathered so far, in connection to the ongoing investigations.

"It was the third progress report released by international teams of experts, but didn't break new ground about the background of the crew, the condition of the jet or the sequence of events," The Wall Street Journal said. "The report did offer fresh details of the confusion and communication problems that emerged among air controllers and officials after the plane vanished."

The report revealed that the battery of the aircraft's flight data recorder "ad expired in December 2012, more than a year before the jet disappeared, and no record was available to show that it had been replaced."

However, according to Mashable, although the battery was expired, "the instrument itself - which relies on electrical power from the aircraft to record data - was functioning properly, and would have captured all the flight information."

Meanwhile, CNN reported that although the outdated battery can still work even when outdated, "it is not guaranteed that it will work or that it would meet the 30-day minimum requirement."

"The battery on the plane's other so-called black box, the cockpit voice recorder, was replaced as scheduled and remained within its expiry date," the news agency added.

In addition, the report also stated that there was no abnormality in the physical and mental condition of the flight's crew and pilots, 53-year-old Capt. Zaharie Ahmad Shah and First Officer Fariq Abdul Hamid. Their financial statuses were also in order and there were no "major disciplinary problems against them," WSJ said.

The report also did not find fault with the fact that the flight carried 221 kilograms of lithium-ion batteries, some types of which have been associated with a number of crashes and in-flight fires in the last few years, as noted by Mashable.

"The accident investigation board examining MH370 did not find any reason to believe the batteries were at fault, in part because they were packed according to regulations that aim to limit risk of fire," the site said.

Meanwhile, Australia's Prime Minister Tony Abbott said that the ongoing search, which had already covered a large area, "can't go on forever."

"But, as long as there are reasonable leads, the search will go on," he added, as quoted by The Guardian.

In essence, the report was not an analysis or explanation but rather a factual account of the incident, which involved the disappearance fof 239 people on March 8, 2014. Currently, the Malaysian government have already ruled that MH370's disappearance was "an accident" and that everyone on board the flight "are presumed dead."

However, relatives of the passengers have expressed their dissatisfaction with the handling of the incident and think that "the Malaysian government's decision in late January to officially declare the loss of MH370 an accident, enabling the insurance payout process to begin, felt premature," according to CNN.

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