First Anniversary of Missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370

First Anniversary of Missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370

Relatives and Families of on board missing 239 passengers and crew member of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 pledge to never give up search in world's biggest aviation mystery. 

Families and Friends of the 239 people who were on board the plane marked the anniversary of the Boeing 777's disappearance, vowing to never give up on the desperate search for wreckage and answers to what happened to their loved ones. Despite an exhaustive search for the plane, no trace of it has been found.

Voice 370, a support group for the kin of those on board, hosted a Day of Remembrance at a mall in Kuala Lumpur on Sunday.

A year without a clue to the tragedy has frustrated the relatives.

In late January, Malaysia's government formally declared the incident an accident and said all those on board were presumed dead. Later in the day, the Malaysian government has announced a 584-page report by a 19-member independent investigation group went into minute details about the crew's lives, including their medical and financial records and training. It also detailed the aircraft's service record, as well as the weather, communications systems and other aspects of the flight. Nothing unusual was revealed, except for the previously undisclosed fact of the battery's expiration date investigation report, a requirement under international civil aviation regulations.

The significance of the expired battery in the beacon of the plane's flight data recorder was not immediately apparent, except indicating that searchers would have had lesser chance of locating the aircraft in the Indian Ocean, where it is believed to have crashed, even if they were in its vicinity. However, the report said the battery in the locator beacon of the cockpit voice recorder was working.

The two instruments — commonly known as "black boxes" — are critical in any crash because they record cockpit conversations and flight data through the end of a flight.

Although no wreckage has been found, officials in Australia, Malaysia and China, the three countries leading the search effort, say they are still optimistic the passenger jet will be found in the southern Indian Ocean where they suspect it crashed after deviating from a flight to Beijing.