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A LARGE ITEM of debris found off the coast of Tanzania belongs to the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, Australian and Malaysian investigators have said.
The fragment, said to be an inboard section of the right, outboard flap of the plane, was recovered in June but its provenance has just been confirmed.
MH370, flying from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, had 239 people on board when it vanished in March 2014.
The Boeing 777 is presumed to have crashed into the southern Indian Ocean after veering off course.
The piece is now being examined for any evidence that may indicate how the flap was operating at the time of separation from the wing, the Australian Transport Safety Bureau said in a report.
This could help throw light on whether the plane was being flown when it came down in the sea.
Archipelago
The debris, found on Pemba Island, part of the Zanzibar archipelago off the Tanzanian coast, is the latest piece of wreckage to be linked to the Malaysia Airlines jet, whose disappearance remains a mystery.
Malaysia’s transport ministry said the piece of debris, which had been taken to Australia for expert analysis, was found to have part numbers, date stamps and other identifiers confirming it came from the Malaysia Airlines jet.
“As such, the experts have concluded that the debris, an outboard flap, originated from the aircraft 9M-MRO, also known as MH370,” a ministry statement said.
Further examination of the debris will continue in hopes that evidence may be uncovered which may provide new insight into the circumstances surrounding flight MH370.
Authorities had earlier said the piece of debris was “highly likely” to have come from MH370.
However, the confirmation appears to have so far shed no fresh light on the plane’s fate.
The Malaysia Airlines jet was carrying 239 passengers and crew when it disappeared en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on 8 March, 2014.
Deep-sea hunt
It is believed to have crashed into the Indian Ocean, but an extensive deep-sea hunt off Australia’s west coast is drawing to a close with nothing found yet.
However, several pieces of debris that apparently drifted thousands of kilometres toward the African coast have been identified as definitely or probably from the Boeing 777.
Those finds have confirmed the plane went down but have so far shed no light on why and have fuelled questions over whether the official search is focused in the right area.
The Australian-led operation is scouring the seafloor within a remote 120,000-square-kilometre (46,000-square-mile) belt of the Indian Ocean where authorities believe the passenger jet went down.
The search is nearly finished, however, and families are bracing for it to be called off.
An American amateur investigator, Blaine Gibson, handed other possible MH370 debris to Australian officials last Monday, saying several pieces were blackened by flames, raising the prospect of a flash fire onboard.
Gibson, a lawyer, who has travelled the world trying to solve the MH370 mystery, told Australian reporters the debris had washed up in Madagascar.
- © AFP, 2016 with reporting from Darragh Peter Murphy.
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Any news on the outcome of the Egypt Air crash? Conspicuous by its absence. They located the black box months ago?
Russian media: was a bomb exploded over Sinai. Put in airport.
Not that one, the one crashed into the Mediterranean sea on the way to Egypt
From what I read so far on aviation sites is that the plane had a fire in the toilet and another part of the plane.
I have a feeling they’re going to find that thing over the next 5 years..a bit at a time.
NAT GEO seconds2disaster will sort this.
Hopefully now this will put and end to the crackpots saying that MH370 was taking by aliens.
@Éanna McClean:Your coming across as one of those crackpots Eanna.
Aliens would improperly dispose of their rubbish, chuck it out the window when they were finished. Damned aliens
Que the conspiracy theories …….
Okay, it’s “definitely or probably” part of the plane? It’s either one or the other.
I wonder what Frank would make of this
I’m with you Linda, only two Boeing 777′s have every crashed and both of them belonged to Malaysian Airlines. So if it’s not from MH370 how did it get from a field in Ukraine to the southern Indian Ocean 10,000 miles away ?
What kind of answer is that……’definitely or maybe’
Is it called TAN-ZAN-EE-A or TAN-ZANE-IA? Or is it Tarzania after Tarzan?
@Martello Mulligan: The locals prefer TAN – ZANE – EA
@Martello Mulligan:Do your weewee’s and in to bed with you,ya little scamp !
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