Suspected MH370 debris to be transferred for inspection

 

Canberra, March 3  Airplane debris suspected to be of the missing Malaysia Airlines MH370 flight found off the coast of Mozambique, would be transferred to Australia for examination.

Australian Minister for Infrastructure and Transport Darren Chester on Thursday said the debris is a piece of metal of about one metre in length, which was found in a Mozambican beach, Xinhua news agency reported.

"The debris is to be transferred to Australia where it will be examined by officials from Australia and Malaysia, as well as international specialists," the minister said.

Chester said the location where the debris was found is consistent with drift modelling commissioned by the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) and reaffirms the search area of the missing plane in the southern Indian Ocean.

The piece was found three days ago by local fishermen accompanying an American tourist along the coast of Vilanculos, Inhambane province, and was handed over to the Mozambican National Civil Aviation Institute on Wednesday.

Last year, an aircraft flaperon was found on the island of La Reunion, which lies at the same corner of the Indian Ocean as Mozambique. The flaperon was later confirmed to be the only debris from the missing aircraft.

Malaysian Airline Flight MH370, a Boeing 777-200ER, disappeared on March 8, 2014, en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, with a total of 239 people on board.

Two years into the disappearance, the search operation in the southern Indian Ocean has yielded no concrete results so far.