OleOle . . .
Thirty days have passed, no preliminary report yet. The AF447 preliminary report was available after 31 days. Does anybody know if the investigators are free to discard this requirement for a preliminary report ?
I know this is going to sound strange, but anyway:
ICAO Annex 13 requires a Preliminary Report be produced within 30 days after the date of an accident. Annex 13 defines an "accident" as an occurrence in which there has been either a) fatality or serious injury, b) serious structural failure or damage to an aircraft or c) the aircraft is missing or completely inaccessible. (The full definition is longer, but that's the sense.)
The Notes to the Definitions in Annex 13 state that "an aircraft is considered to be missing when the official search has been terminated and the wreckage has not been located".
Clearly the search has not been terminated, and there is no actual physical evidence as yet of death, serious injury, or serious structural failure or damage. So it seems to me that, for the purposes of Annex 13, there is at the moment no "accident". The AF447 situation was different in that, although the search for the recorders went on for 2 years, bodies and wreckage were found within days, hence establishing beyond doubt that an accident had occurred under both options (a) & (b) above.
I know that seems odd, and "common sense" argues that an accident (in the general use of the term) has occurred to MH370, but the drafters of Annex 13 clearly saw fit not to define an overdue aircraft as "missing" and thus an "accident" for the purposes of investigation and reporting until the search for it is abandoned.
It therefore looks to me as though a report is not yet required, so the investigators have not discarded any requirement.