First preliminary report released on the disappearance of flight MH370.

At 2 PM on March 8th – Vietnam time, in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, an independent investigative team established in April 2014 to shed light on the fate of MH370 released its first preliminary investigation report on the plane's disappearance.

The search area for the mysteriously missing aircraft (information source: Malaysian government and Australian maritime safety authority, graphic: BBC)

The report was published on the one-year anniversary of the plane's disappearance.

The report, which is over 500 pages long, does not offer any conclusions about the year-long investigation, but only mentions information related to the plane's disappearance that the investigation team had gathered from the date the plane went missing until March 7, 2015, and the progress of the search for the aircraft.

In a statement at a press conference, Kok Soo Shon, head of Malaysia's independent investigation team, said: “The sole objective of the investigation into the plane crash is to prevent similar accidents from happening again. The goal of the investigation is not to assign blame or responsibility to any particular party. Over the next few months, the investigation team will analyze and draw conclusions and make recommendations based on the information we have gathered.”

Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, carrying 239 passengers and crew on a journey from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia to Beijing, China, mysteriously disappeared on March 8, 2014.

Malaysian authorities said satellite data showed the plane had deviated from its planned flight path and headed toward the southern Indian Ocean. A massive and costly search operation, the largest in history, led by Australia, was conducted in the area believed to be the crash site, but so far no evidence has been found.

According to VOV/Reuters