Kim Kyung Hoon / Reuters
Malaysia Airlines admitted that it had failed to replace an expired beacon battery on Flight 370, but also said it would not have hindered the efforts to locate the vanished plane. A 584-page interim report on the March 8, 2014, disappearance of MH370 indicated that a battery in the underwater locator beacon had expired in December 2012 and was not replaced by Malaysia Airlines. “This was a maintenance scheduling oversight,” an airline official stated. However, the carrier dismissed concerns that this mistake would have hindered search efforts, because a similar beacon within the state cockpit voice recorder (SSCVR) was operating and did not have an expired battery. “The SSCVR battery would have been transmitting for 30 days upon activation when immersed in water,” Malaysia Airlines said in a statement. A lawyer for some of the family members of MH370 victims begs to differ. “The airline... even more clearly now may be responsible for the unsuccessful search for this plane,” said Justin Green of U.S.-based law firm Kreindler & Kreindler to Reuters in an email. MH370 disappeared one year ago with 239 people on board.