Story highlights "You shouldn't read anything into any gaps in the data," Inmarsat official says

Inmarsat CEO: We didn't release model we used to crunch data; it's up to Malaysian government

The information is lacking important elements, a CNN safety analyst says

A passenger's partner says she's annoyed more information wasn't released

Data from communications between satellites and missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 was released Tuesday, more than two months after relatives of passengers say they requested that it be made public.

But criticism quickly emerged suggesting that the information provided lacks important elements that would help outside experts put the official version of events to the test.

Malaysian authorities published a 47-page document containing hundreds of lines of communication logs between the jetliner and the British company Inmarsat's satellite system.

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The information provided isn't the whole picture but is "intended to provide a readable summary of the data communication logs," the notes at the beginning of the document say.

In the weeks following the plane's March 8 disappearance, a team of international experts used the satellite data and other information, including radar data and engine performance calculations, to conclude that the aircraft ended up in a remote area of the southern Indian Ocean.

Photos: The search for MH370 Photos: The search for MH370 Two years after Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 went missing, a relative of one of the passengers burns incense in Beijing on March 8, 2016. Flight 370 vanished on March 8, 2014, as it flew from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to Beijing. There were 239 people on board. Hide Caption 1 of 43 Photos: The search for MH370 On July 29, police carry a piece of debris on Reunion Island, a French territory in the Indian Ocean. A week later, authorities confirmed that the debris was from the missing flight. Hide Caption 2 of 43 Photos: The search for MH370 Staff members with the Australian Transport Safety Bureau examine a piece of aircraft debris at their laboratory in Canberra, Australia, on July 20. The flap was found in June by residents on Pemba Island off the coast of Tanzania, and officials had said it was highly likely to have come from Flight 370. Experts at the Australian Transport Safety Bureau, which is heading up the search for the plane, confirmed that the part was indeed from the missing aircraft. Hide Caption 3 of 43 Photos: The search for MH370 In late February, American tourist Blaine Gibson found a piece of plane debris off Mozambique, a discovery that renewed hope of solving the mystery of the missing flight. The piece measured 35 inches by 22 inches. A U.S. official said it was likely the wreckage came from a Boeing 777, which MH370 was. Hide Caption 4 of 43 Photos: The search for MH370 Relatives of the flight's passengers console each other outside the Malaysia Airlines office in Subang, Malaysia, on February 12, 2015. Protesters had demanded that the airline withdraw the statement that all 239 people aboard the plane were dead. Hide Caption 5 of 43 Photos: The search for MH370 A police officer watches a couple cry outside the airline's office building in Beijing after officials refused to meet with them on June 11, 2014. The couple's son was on the plane. Hide Caption 6 of 43 Photos: The search for MH370 Members of the media scramble to speak with Azharuddin Abdul Rahman, director general of Malaysia's Civil Aviation Department, at a hotel in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on May 27, 2014. Data from communications between satellites and the missing flight was released the day before, more than two months after relatives of passengers said they requested it be made public. Hide Caption 7 of 43 Photos: The search for MH370 Operators aboard the Australian ship Ocean Shield move Bluefin-21, the U.S. Navy's autonomous underwater vehicle, into position to search for the jet on April 14, 2014. Hide Caption 8 of 43 Photos: The search for MH370 A member of the Royal New Zealand Air Force looks out of a window while searching for debris off the coast of western Australia on April 13, 2014. Hide Caption 9 of 43 Photos: The search for MH370 The HMS Echo, a vessel with the British Roya; Navy, moves through the waters of the southern Indian Ocean on April 12, 2014. Hide Caption 10 of 43 Photos: The search for MH370 A Royal Australian Air Force AP-3C Orion, on a mission to drop sonar buoys to assist in the search, flies past the Australian vessel Ocean Shield on April 9, 2014. Hide Caption 11 of 43 Photos: The search for MH370 A relative of a missing passenger cries at a vigil in Beijing on April 8, 2014. Hide Caption 12 of 43 Photos: The search for MH370 Australian Defense Force divers scan the water for debris in the southern Indian Ocean on April 7, 2014. Hide Caption 13 of 43 Photos: The search for MH370 A towed pinger locator is readied to be deployed off the deck of the Australian vessel Ocean Shield on April 7, 2014. Hide Caption 14 of 43 Photos: The search for MH370 A member of the Royal New Zealand Air Force looks at a flare in the Indian Ocean during search operations on April 4, 2014. Hide Caption 15 of 43 Photos: The search for MH370 On March 30, 2014, a woman in Kuala Lumpur prepares for an event in honor of those aboard Flight 370. Hide Caption 16 of 43 Photos: The search for MH370 The sole representative for the families of Flight 370 passengers leaves a conference at a Beijing hotel on March 28, 2014, after other relatives left en masse to protest the Malaysian government's response to their questions. Hide Caption 17 of 43 Photos: The search for MH370 A member of the Royal Australian Air Force is silhouetted against the southern Indian Ocean during the search for the missing jet on March 27, 2014. Hide Caption 18 of 43 Photos: The search for MH370 Flight Lt. Jayson Nichols looks at a map aboard a Royal Australian Air Force aircraft during a search on March 27, 2014. Hide Caption 19 of 43 Photos: The search for MH370 People in Kuala Lumpur light candles during a ceremony held for the missing flight's passengers on March 27, 2014. Hide Caption 20 of 43 Photos: The search for MH370 Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, center, delivers a statement about the flight on March 24, 2014. Razak's announcement came after the airline sent a text message to relatives saying it "deeply regrets that we have to assume beyond any reasonable doubt that MH 370 has been lost and that none of those onboard survived." Hide Caption 21 of 43 Photos: The search for MH370 Grieving relatives of missing passengers leave a hotel in Beijing on March 24, 2014. Hide Caption 22 of 43 Photos: The search for MH370 A passenger views a weather map in the departures terminal of Kuala Lumpur International Airport on March 22, 2014. Hide Caption 23 of 43 Photos: The search for MH370 A Chinese satellite captured this image, released on March 22, 2014, of a floating object in the Indian Ocean, according to China's State Administration of Science. It was a possible lead in the search for the missing plane. Surveillance planes were looking for two objects spotted by satellite imagery in remote, treacherous waters more than 1,400 miles from the west coast of Australia. Hide Caption 24 of 43 Photos: The search for MH370 Satellite imagery provided by the Australian Maritime Safety Authority on March 20, 2014, showed debris in the southern Indian Ocean that could have been from Flight 370. The announcement by Australian officials raised hopes of a breakthrough in the frustrating search. Hide Caption 25 of 43 Photos: The search for MH370 Another satellite shot provided by the Australian Maritime Safety Authority shows possible debris from the flight. Hide Caption 26 of 43 Photos: The search for MH370 A distraught relative of a missing passenger breaks down while talking to reporters at Kuala Lumpur International Airport on March 19, 2014. Hide Caption 27 of 43 Photos: The search for MH370 On March 18, 2014, a relative of a missing passenger tells reporters in Beijing about a hunger strike to protest authorities' handling of information about the missing jet. Hide Caption 28 of 43 Photos: The search for MH370 U.S. Navy crew members assist in search-and-rescue operations in the Indian Ocean on March 16, 2014. Hide Caption 29 of 43 Photos: The search for MH370 Members of the Chinese navy continue search operations on March 13, 2014. After starting in the sea between Malaysia and Vietnam, the plane's last confirmed location, search efforts expanded west into the Indian Ocean. Hide Caption 30 of 43 Photos: The search for MH370 A Vietnamese military official looks out an aircraft window during search operations March 13, 2014. Hide Caption 31 of 43 Photos: The search for MH370 Malaysian air force members look for debris near Kuala Lumpur on March 13, 2014. Hide Caption 32 of 43 Photos: The search for MH370 Relatives of missing passengers wait for the latest news at a hotel in Beijing on March 12, 2014. Hide Caption 33 of 43 Photos: The search for MH370 A member of the Vietnamese air force checks a map while searching for the missing plane on March 11, 2014. Hide Caption 34 of 43 Photos: The search for MH370 A Vietnamese air force plane found traces of oil that authorities had suspected to be from the missing Malaysia Airlines plane, the Vietnamese government online newspaper reported on March 8, 2014. However, a sample from the slick showed it was bunker oil, typically used to power large cargo ships, Malaysia's state news agency, Bernama, reported on March 10, 2014. Hide Caption 35 of 43 Photos: The search for MH370 A U.S. Navy Seahawk helicopter lands aboard the USS Pinckney to change crews on March 9, 2014, before returning to search for the missing plane in the Gulf of Thailand. Hide Caption 36 of 43 Photos: The search for MH370 Buddhist monks at Kuala Lumpur International Airport offer a special prayer for the missing passengers on March 9, 2014. Hide Caption 37 of 43 Photos: The search for MH370 Members of a Chinese emergency response team board a rescue vessel at the port of Sanya in China's Hainan province on March 9, 2014. Hide Caption 38 of 43 Photos: The search for MH370 The rescue vessel sets out from Sanya in the South China Sea on March 9, 2014. Hide Caption 39 of 43 Photos: The search for MH370 Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, center, arrives to meet family members of missing passengers at the reception center at Kuala Lumpur International Airport on March 8, 2014. Hide Caption 40 of 43 Photos: The search for MH370 A relative of two missing passengers reacts at their home in Kuala Lumpur on March 8, 2014. Hide Caption 41 of 43 Photos: The search for MH370 Chinese police at the Beijing airport stand beside the arrival board showing delayed Flight 370 in red on March 8, 2014. Hide Caption 42 of 43 Photos: The search for MH370 Malaysia Airlines Group CEO Ahmad Juahari Yahya, front, speaks during a news conference at a hotel in Sepang on March 8, 2014. "We deeply regret that we have lost all contacts" with the jet, he said. Hide Caption 43 of 43

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Some passengers' families, unsatisfied by the official explanation of the plane's fate, say they want an independent analysis of the complex information, a process that could take some time.

Michael Exner, one of the most vocal experts among those calling for the release of the data, said a very preliminary review suggested that there were gaps in the notes explaining the data.

The explanatory notes at the start of the document "answer a few of the questions we have had, but leave many questions unanswered," he told CNN.

CNN safety analyst David Soucie said certain key elements, which would allow independent experts to fully test the official conclusion, are missing from the data in the document.

"There's not enough information to say whether they made an error," he said. "I think we're still going to be looking for more."

Inmarsat CEO Rupert Pearce acknowledged Tuesday that the company didn't release the model to which it applied the data to estimate the plane's path -- and said the decision on whether to release the model lies with the Malaysian government, which is leading the search.

"We'd be perfectly happy to put that model out," Pearce told CNN's "New Day."

But Pearce also told CNN that the released data is enough -- along with engine and radar data -- for experienced third parties to plug into their own models and reach their own conclusions.

"You shouldn't read anything into any gaps in the data," Inmarsat Senior Vice President Chris McLaughlin told CNN's "Erin Burnett OutFront" on Tuesday. "This is a very goodwill and focused way that we're trying to communicate our best impression of what happened."

Sarah Bajc, whose partner, Philip Wood, was on the missing jet, said she was "annoyed" that Inmarsat and Malaysian authorities hadn't released everything they used to reach their conclusions.

"I see no reason for them to have massaged this before giving it to us," she said.

Data guided search

For weeks, Inmarsat said it didn't have the authority to release the data, deferring to Malaysian authorities, who are in charge of the search for the plane that disappeared over Southeast Asia while on a scheduled flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.

Last week, the two sides announced that they would aim to make the information available to the public.

The satellite signals -- called "handshakes" -- with MH370 were part of a larger set of data that investigators have used to try to establish the whereabouts of the missing Boeing 777 with 239 people on board.

The handshakes continued to take place for roughly six hours after the aircraft dropped off radar screens.

Months of searching by dozens of planes and ships in the southern Indian Ocean has so far turned up no wreckage, and investigators have not been able to say for sure where the remains of MH370 might be.

The underwater search for the missing plane will effectively be put on hold this week, and may not resume until August at the earliest, according to Australia's top transport safety official.

Analysts have said the release of the satellite data could help discount some theories about what happened to the jetliner, and potentially fuel new ones.

"I think far too much has been left to experts who have remained behind the curtain," said K.S. Narendran, whose wife, Chandrika Sharma, was on the flight.

Inmarsat confident

Even though more than 80 days have passed without searchers finding any wreckage from the plane, Inmarsat officials say they remain confident in their data.

"Yes, to a high degree of probability, we are certain that our data is right," McLaughlin said Tuesday.

In an exclusive interview with CNN's Richard Quest last week, Inmarsat's vice president of satellite operations said the company's calculations have been tested by other people.

"No one has come up yet with a reason why it shouldn't work with this particular flight when it has worked with others," Mark Dickinson said. "And it's very important this isn't just an Inmarsat activity. There are other people doing investigations, experts who are helping the investigation team, who have got the same data, who made their own models up and did the same thing to see if they got the same results and broadly speaking, they got roughly the same answers."

Experts came to the conclusion that the plane had ended up in the southern Indian Ocean by piecing together three types of information, he said.

"We have actually the messages from the ground station to the plane and back again. That essentially tells you the terminal is switched on and powered up. We have some timing information and in addition to that there were some frequency measurements," he said.

The timings told them the distance between the plane and the satellite, enabling them to map out arcs. Then they factored in frequency differences, determining that the plane had headed south.

'The right work'

It was a startling conclusion -- and Dickinson says investigators made sure to repeatedly check their calculations before sharing them.

"You want to make sure when you come to a conclusion like that, that you've done the right work, the data is as you understand it to be," he said.

Now, Dickinson says he's well aware that the entire weight of the search rests on the Inmarsat data.

"This is all the data we have for what has happened for those six or so hours," he said. "It's important we all get it right and particularly that everyone looking at the data makes the best judgments on it and how it's used. And particularly for the families and friends of the relatives on board, try and make sure that we can help bring this sad incident to a close."

Quest said he thinks the expertise of the Inmarsat team and the level of testing to which their work was subjected justifies their confidence in their conclusions.

"It is up to the detractors and doubters to come up and say why they believe it's wrong," he said. "Not the other way around."

Bajc acknowledged that independent analysis of the data may support Inmarsat's conclusions.

"That would be a fine outcome as far as I'm concerned," she said.

But if the independent experts come up with alternative flight paths based on the data, Bajc said, then "those need to be investigated."

The wait for data

The issue of making the satellite data public has become the cause of confusion and contradictory statements.

Bajc said the families had first asked for the data more than two months ago.

"It seemed a relatively innocent request" at the time, she said, but authorities refused to release it.

Malaysian officials told CNN earlier this month that their government did not have the data. But Inmarsat officials said the company provided all of it to Malaysian officials "at an early stage in the search."

"We've shared the information that we had, and it's for the investigation to decide what and when it puts out," McLaughlin said earlier this month.

But a senior Malaysian official told CNN that the government needed Inmarsat's help to pass on the data to families "in a presentable way."

"We are trying to be as transparent as possible," the official said. "We have no issues releasing the data."

Bajc said the delay only added to questions surrounding the information.

"It's a little curious to me why this had to become such a big deal," she said Tuesday.