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Malaysia: New debris likely from MH370
March 4th 2016
Malaysian transport minister, Liow Tiong Lai, has said on his official Twitter feed that “based on early reports,” there is a “high possibility” the debris found off the coast of Mozambique last weekend “belongs to a 777”. Read More »
Images of the debris appear to show the right-hand horizontal stabilizer of a B777, a U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Wednesday. MH370, which vanished without a trace on March 8, 2014, with 239 passengers and crew aboard, is the only known missing B777.
The Mozambique discovery follows the finding of a flaperon washed ashore on Reunion Island last July, which was confirmed to be part of MH370. Mozambique is approximately 1,300 miles down current from Reunion.
Identification of the aircraft debris as part of MH370 is unlikely, at this stage, to have an impact on the underwater search for the plane, which is taking place thousands of miles to the east, said Dan O'Malley, a spokesman for the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB).
Authorities have long predicted that debris from MH370 that did not sink to the ocean floor would eventually be carried by currents to the east coast of Africa. Australia's Transport Minister, Darren Chester, said on Thursday that the location of the debris in Mozambique matches the ATSB's drift modelling and reaffirms search teams are looking in the right part of the Indian Ocean for the B777’s fuselage.
