Malaysia aviation chief resigns over MH370 report

Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia): The chief of Malaysia's civil aviation regulation, Azharuddin Abdul Rahmanon, stepped down on Tuesday after an official report found lapses in air traffic control when Malaysian Airlines flight MH370 disappeared.

However, the report, prepared by the 19-member international team, said that it is impossible to provide any firm conclusion about the occurrence of the incident until the lost plane's wreckage and black boxes are recovered, Fox News reported.

In a long-awaited report released on Monday, the probe team pointed out scores of lapses by air traffic controllers in both Vietnam and Malaysia.

The report also added that there is a paucity of information to determine if the plane broke up in the air, or due to the impact of the ocean.

The Boeing 777, which was ferrying as many as 239 passengers from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, suddenly disappeared on March 8, 2014, and is presumed to have crashed into the southern Indian Ocean.

The team, in its report, mentioned that it is onerous for the MH370 aircraft's course change to be attributed to mechanical or system failures.

"It is more likely that such maneuvers are due to the systems being manipulated," the report said.

In an attempt to resolve this case, several countries such as Malaysia, China, and Australia carried out search operations in the Indian Ocean but later called off in January 2017 after failing to find the traces of the missing aircraft.

In May 2018, another search operation was conducted by a private firm it signed an agreement with the Malaysian government.