An aviation expert has claimed that Malaysian and Australian authorities, who are handling the search for the missing Malaysian Airlines Flight MH370, may be involved in a cover-up. According to The Malaysian Insider, the expert, Desmond Ross claims that the authorities also committed a breach of protocol that made the ongoing search more costly that should be.

Ross, who is a pilot and air-traffic management specialist, reportedly blamed the authorities' failure to release recordings from the first hours of the plane's disappearance for the delay in finding it. He also supposedly raised doubts about the official version of the disappearance in an article in Aviation Business Asia Pacific magazine.

"Many facts are missing, but many are available and should be released. We know that the initial period was filled with confusion and even misinformation from the airline itself which, at one stage, told ATC (Air traffic control) that it had contact with the aircraft in Cambodian airspace," he reportedly said.

He also referred to 'Where is Flight MH370', a BBC documentary in which Malaysian authorities said they could not reveal the military's tracking of the missing plane on account of security reasons. He claimed it could be a case of "criminal negligence" if there was no recording of communications between military defense officers and the civil air traffic controllers at the Kuala Lumpur control center.

"Nobody can tell us that the recordings do not exist," Ross reportedly said, adding that Malaysia and Australia, "could be accused of covering up vital information which would help the families and independent investigators to work out what happened."

The search for MH370 resumed in September after a four-month break. So far, the searchers have not found any clues about the whereabouts of the plane.