Malaysia Airlines has insisted that the expired battery in missing flight MH370's locator beacon would have not made a difference in the search for the plane, Reuters reported.
Lawyers for the families of the plane's missing passengers had previously said that the fact the battery had not been replaced would be key to any legal action they would take against the airline.
In an email to Reuters, Kreindler & Kreindler LP aviation attorney Justin Green said:
This airline, which allowed its crew and plane to fly with expired batteries on critical equipment, continues to reject offering any kind of meaningful settlement to the families without them first proving the losses they suffered, without any actual evidence of a crash.
The airline ... even more clearly now may be responsible for the unsuccessful search for this plane.
However, in a statement released Monday, Malaysia Airlines insisted that another beacon with good battery life was installed with the solid state cockpit voice recorder (SSCVR).
"The SSCVR battery would have been transmitting for 30 days upon activation when immersed in water," the airline said.
A report released on Sunday's one year anniversary of the plane taking off failed to find any conclusions failed to find much new information on why it disappeared. BuzzFeed News' report on the document follows below.
A new report on the disappearance on Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 has revealed that the battery for the locator beacon on the missing plane's black box had expired more than a year prior to the plane's fatal flight and was likely not replaced.
The report comes as officials and family members marked one year since the plane took off from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on Mar. 8, 2014, and was never seen again.
The interim report by Malaysian investigators failed to find much new information of significance that could provide answers as to what happened to the plane.
Investigators have acknowledged that the plane, which was carrying 239 passengers and crew members, veered wildly off its flight path to Beijing after dropping off of radar screens.
Earlier this year, authorities in Malaysia officially declared the incident an accident and said all aboard are assumed to be dead.
Although investigators believe that the plane eventually crashed in the Indian Ocean off of Australia they haven't been able to find any evidence from the jet.
The interim report , released on Sunday, failed to offer any new significant clues as to what may have happened to the plane. The report said that it is possible that more information or evidence will be discovered before the final version is released.
The report did reveal that the battery for the locator beacon on the plane's so-called black box was expired, and probably wasn't replaced before the plane took off.
The report explains that the battery seems to have missed a routine inspection because of oversight, and there is no evidence it was replaced in time. The other components of the black box were serviced on schedule.
The investigators said that because of this, the locator beacon may not have worked as long as it should have after the plane went down.
"While there is a definite possibility that a (beacon) will operate past the expiry date on the device, it is not guaranteed that it will work or that it would meet the 30-day minimum requirement," the report says.
The report also goes into detail about the crew of the flight, especially the pilot and co-pilot. The investigators said they tracked the movements of the crew before the flight and compared it to the movements of the same crew members before previous flights.
They said they found nothing unusual about the crew members' actions. Additionally, they could not find anything out of the ordinary in the bank records or behavior of the crew in the days leading up to the flight.
"There were no behavioural signs of social isolation, change in habits or interest, self-neglect, drug or alcohol abuse of the Captain, First Officer and the Cabin Crew," the report said.
Meanwhile, family members have been holding vigils in China this week to mark the anniversary of the plane's disappearance, Reuters reported.
"I can't sleep at night, each night I'm only getting about two hours, but I'm certain that my daughter is still alive and I'm going to get her back," one family member told Reuters.
Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak said in a statement on Sunday that the government remains committed to solving the mystery and bringing closure to the families of those on board the jet.
"Together with our international partners, we have followed the little evidence that exists," he said according to Reuters. "Malaysia remains committed to the search, and hopeful that MH370 will be found."