The last words from the pilot of the missing Malaysia Airlines jet MH370 were “Good night Malaysian three seven zero”, a file released today reveals.
The document differs from the original account of the last communication from the plane, which contained a more casual “All right, good night”.
Malaysia released the full transcript of communications between the Boeing 777 and the local air traffic control officials before it dropped off radar on 8 March flying from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.
In a statement, Malaysia;s acting transport minister Hishammuddin Hussein said; “There is no indication of anything abnormal in the transcript.
“The transcript was initially held as part of the police investigation”.
Minutes after the final radio transmission was received, the plane’s communications were cut off and it turned back across Malaysia towards the Indian Ocean, according to military radar and satellite data.
The incident has highlighted two major areas where improvements areneeded – aircraft tracking and passenger data – according to International Air Transport Association (Iata) Director Deneral Tony Tyler.
Speaking at an Iata conference in Kuala Lumpur, he said; “In a world where our every move seems to be tracked, there is disbelief both that an aircraft could simply disappear and that the flight data and cockpit voice recorders are so difficult to recover.”
He claimed the Air France 447 incident, when a plane crashed into the Atlantic in June 2009, brought similar issues to light a few years ago and “some progress was made”.
“But that must be accelerated. We cannot let another aircraft simply vanish.”