BEIRUT: The Lebanese government failed again to release the official report on Ethiopian Airlines flight ET409 which plunged into the Mediterranean nearly 20 months ago, while Public Works and Transportation Minister Ghazi Aridi pledged that it would be released in 60 days.

Aridi told a news conference Thursday that the official report was ready, but it could not be released because all representatives of the investigation committee are required first to give their comments on the report. Aridi said that the report will be released, with or without comments, in two months’ time.

In February, Aridi vowed that the Civil Aviation Authority would release the full report before the end of July, adding that all families would be compensated “without any exceptions.”

Contrary to these promises, Thursday’s conference was full of uncertainty over whether the families of the 90 victims would be able to see the report or receive compensation.

Just minutes after takeoff from Beirut’s Rafik Hariri International Airport, the Boeing 737-800 crashed into the Mediterranean on a stormy night in January last year, killing all onboard.

After the retrieving the plane’s black box and the cockpit voice recorder, the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board, French experts and representatives from Boeing, together with Lebanese and Ethiopian authorities, launched an investigation to uncover the circumstances behind the crash.

“The report is ready but we cannot publish it because we are bound by agreements with our Ethiopian counterparts,” Aridi told reporters at the airport.

Disputes that Aridi mentioned in February between the Lebanese and Ethiopian authorities over allegations of responsibility for the accident have escalated in recent months.

Last month, Ethiopian representatives from Addis Ababa visited Beirut, after more than a month of delay, to begin discussions on finalizing the report with Lebanese officials.

However, in a surprising move, the entire delegation quit the talks and left Beirut without notifying their Lebanese counterparts.

“The Ethiopian delegation arrived in Beirut on Aug. 19, and after a long day of meeting on Friday, we agreed to continue our talks on Monday … but we were surprised to hear that the Ethiopian delegation had left Beirut Monday morning,” said Aridi.

Aridi criticized the Ethiopian delegation for failing to help finalize the report despite attempts by the Lebanese government. “We will not give up [on the matter] … everyone should be fully responsible,” Aridi added.

According to the Aircraft Accident and Incident Investigation appendix to the Convention on International Civil Aviation, in the interest of accident prevention, states conducting the investigation of an accident should release the final report in a shortest time possible.

“After the 60 days deadline, we will have the right to make the official final report public, regardless of whether the Ethiopian representatives sent their comments or not,” said Aridi, adding that the government will then deal with the legal proceedings of the incident.

“If there are companies in the world that would like to voice their objections to the final report in defense of their airline’s international credibility, they are free to do so,” said Aridi in reference to the Ethiopian Airline.

Several unconfirmed reports have said that the accident was mainly a result of pilot error, a scenario to which Ethiopian officials are highly likely to object.

Aridi, who had also previously vowed to fight for compensation for all the families of the 90 victims, tried to distance his ministry from the matter during Thursday’s conference.

“In a previous meeting with the families, we tried to agree on one authority responsible for filing the complaints … but this is not the responsibility of the ministry,” said Aridi.

“Some people [families] have already filed their complaints through their family lawyers abroad,” the minister noted.