Malaysias civil aviation chief resigns following MH370 report

Kuala Lumpur, July 31  Malaysia's civil aviation chief resigned on Tuesday, a day after a report into the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 showed lapses by Kuala Lumpur's air traffic control centre.

In a statement, Azharuddin Abdul Rahman said although the investigation report "does not suggest that the accident is caused by the Department of Civil Aviation then, nevertheless, there are some very apparent findings with regards to the operations of the Kuala Lumpur Air Traffic Control Centre; where it was stated that the Air Traffic Controller did not comply with certain Standard Operating Procedures", reports Efe news.

"Therefore, it is with regret and after much thought and contemplation that I have decided to resign as the Chairman of Civil Aviation Authority of Malaysia effective fourteen days from the date of the resignation notice which I have served today," Azharuddin said.

The Boeing 777 disappeared from radar on March 8, 2014, around 40 minutes after it took off from Kuala Lumpur with 239 people on board, 154 of whom were Chinese.

On Monday, an international team of experts from eight countries presented the report of a four-year long investigation, but they were unable to determine who was responsible for the plane's disappearance.

The document indicates that the course of the flight was changed manually after taking off from Kuala Lumpur.

The report also points to failings in Malaysia's surveillance systems and does not rule out interference by third parties.

Investigators believe the aircraft crashed into the Indian Ocean and 27 fragments of the plane have been recovered from beaches in Reunion, Mozambique, Mauritius, South Africa and Pemba Island (Zanzibar).

Specialised search teams combed an area of 120,000 sq.km and experts believe the plane was likely to have crashed, but called off the operation after they found nothing.