Malaysian officials admitted Saturday that the batteries on the black box of missing flight MH370 were expired and due to be replaced.
The plane has been missing for 28 days.
A Malaysia Airlines (MAS) MH370 flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing has lost contact with Subang Air Traffic Control at 2.40am, 8th March 2014. The plane was carrying a total number of 227 passengers including two infants and twelve crew members.
(Strait Times)
The Strait Times reported:
Malaysia Airlines chief executive officer (CEO) Ahmad Jauhari Yahya today confirmed that the batteries of the black box pingers of the missing Malaysia Airlines (MAS) Flight MH370 were due for replacement in June.
“And as far as the batteries are concerned, we confirm that there is a maintenance programme whereby the batteries are replaced prior to its expiry.
“We do know that the batterries are due for replacement only in June 2014,” he said at a briefing on the search operation for MH370, here today.
Ahmad Jauhari said this in respond to a question from the floor whether the pinger batteries were due for replacement in 2012, as claimed by its US based manufacturer Dukane Seacom Inc.
On Friday, Dukane Seacom Inc president Anish Patel told CNN that the recorders were scheduled for battery replacements in 2012, but they were never returned for the overhaul.
All commercial aircraft are required to carry pingers, known as underwater locator beacons, to help investigators locate them should they crash into water.
One is attached to the flight data recorder (FDR) and another to the cockpit voice recorder (CVR).
The FDR and CVR make up the flight recorders, also known as the black box. The pings sound about once per second, and can be detected from two nautical miles away by towed pinger locators (TPLs).