KUALA LUMPUR, March 31 — Faced with more conflicting reports on what happened on flight MH370 before it fell off radar screens, Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein offered today to seek permission from investigators to release more information on their probe — particularly on the aircraft’s final communication with ground control.

But the minister, forced again to defend his government from claims that Malaysia has been hiding information from the public, insisted that there would not likely be anything “sinister” to be gleaned from the transcript.

“If it’s so important, let me talk to the experts and investigators,” he said during a live broadcast of today’s scheduled press conference at the Putra World Trade Centre (PWTC) here.

“If it can be revealed, it will be revealed. I don’t think it’s going to show anything sinister.”

The minister was being grilled by the international media on conflicting reports from various sources claiming to be close to the probe on MH370’s disappearance, some of which have contradicted information previously released by the Malaysian government.

Earlier today, a report by China-owned news outlet CCTV revealed that the actual last words uttered from M370’s cockpit were “Good night, Malaysian 370”, and not “Alright, good night”, as previously reported.

“The last words are particularly significant because it lessens the probability that either the pilot or co-pilot were involved in the ‘deliberate act’ of steering the plane in the westerly direction, away from its planned route,” CCTV reporter James Chau said in the video report.

Chau, who said he has documented proof and independent corroboration of the actual phrase used, noted that it was a standard greeting used in aviation compared to the more ominous “Alright, good night”.

Those final few words, believed to be uttered by co-pilot Fariq Ab Hamid, who was in the cockpit with flight captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah, became the subject of much scrutiny after March 15 when Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak confirmed that the aircraft’s diversion to the west had been the result of “deliberate action” by someone on board.

The wide-body plane carrying 239 people was originally meant to fly to Beijing when it left Kuala Lumpur on the morning of March 8, but according to satellite data and radar readings, MH370 veered westwards after it lost contact with ground control and is now believed to be in the Indian Ocean, southwest of Perth, Australia.

At today’s press conference, Hishammuddin was also urged to confirm the aircraft’s flying pattern — if it had veered sharply to the left or had made a loop instead, towards its final resting place, which is believed to be in the Indian Ocean.

News reporters complained to the minister that information currently in the public sphere has not confirmed either of the two possibilities, suggesting again that the authorities have not been releasing accurate information.

Hishammuddin, after insisting again that Malaysia has not been hiding data from the public, pointed out that much of the information was being used by the ongoing probe on MH370’s behaviour before it went missing over three weeks ago.

He insisted on following procedures permitted by the probe, and said he could only release information if investigators granted him permission to do so.

“If the investigators can give us the okay, then we will (release the information),” he said.

“With regards to the issue of information revealed outside the press conferences and the speculation, and diagrams on Google or anything else on the Internet, I cannot confirm or discount (them).

“I can only base on what I have informed you in my press conferences,” he said.