Kuala Lumpur, May 2 (IANS) Malaysia’s acting Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein said here Friday that the releasing of the preliminary report on the Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 that went missing in March was consistent with the country’s stand.
“This is consistent with our stand that in the interests of openness and transparency – all information which does not jeopardize the investigation or the search operation should be made public,” he said.
“We have nothing to hide,” he stressed.
Hishammuddin said he met with Angus Houston, chief of the Australian Joint Agency Coordination Centre, and Jean-Paul Troadec, president of the French Aviation Accident Investigation Bureau who led the Air France flight 447 investigation team, earlier in the day, and discussed the new phase of the search operation.
He said the three subcommittees – the technical committee, next of kin committee and asset deployment committee – led by three deputy ministers had been meeting and efforts had been intensified to prepare for the next phase.
According to him, they had held detailed discussions with several Malaysian companies on deploying specialised assets, including autonomous unmanned vehicles, deep-water towed side scan sonars, remotely operated vehicles and support vessels, for the new phase of search.
The minister said he would go to Canberra to attend the trilateral ministerial meeting May 5, which a Chinese delegation would also attend.
He echoed Houston’s view on the Bay of Bengal allegation, saying it highly unlikely for the plane to be there.
Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 vanished mysteriously about an hour after taking off for Beijing from Kuala Lumpur shortly after midnight March 8.
The Boeing 777-200ER was scheduled to land in Beijing the same morning. The 227 passengers on board included five Indians, 154 Chinese and 38 Malaysians.