TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Taiwan’s military is reportedly upset about the leak of flight recorder data from the UH-60M Black Hawk helicopter that crashed on Jan. 2, killing eight military officers.

Reports suggest that the decision by the Taiwan Transportation Safety Board (TTSB) to provide a preliminary analysis of the cause of the fatal incident has raised the ire of Ministry of National Defense (MND) officials. The ministry even reportedly vowed legal action against the individuals who were responsible for leaking the information to the public, wrote Liberty Times.

Citing the TTSB, CNA reported on Saturday (Jan. 4) that mechanical failure and turbulence could be 80 percent ruled out as the cause of last week's accident. The agency was scheduled to hand over the relevant information to the defense ministry that afternoon.

TTSB Chairperson Young Hong-tsu (楊宏智) repudiated the rumor, saying the independent investigation agency has received no such complaint from the military. The MND has also denied commenting on the matter, LTN quoted Young as saying.

In an online statement released on Monday (Jan. 6), the TTSB dismissed reports accusing it of leaking data pertaining to the helicopter tragedy as unsubstantiated. It said that the military is spearheading the investigation and that the agency had simply provided information deciphered from the black box, stressing it had not pointed to human error as a likely cause of the incident.