More debris likely to be from MH370
Print Edition
TWO more pieces of debris are “almost certainly” from flight MH370, according to experts at the Australian Transport Safety Bureau where they had been sent for tests.
The fragments washed up on beaches in South Africa and Mauritius in March add fresh clues to the mystery of the Malaysia Airlines plane presumed to have crashed at sea.
The Boeing 777 vanished en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8, 2014, with 239 passengers, most of them Chinese, and crew on board.
Five pieces of debris have now been identified as either definitely or probably from the jet, all discovered thousands of kilometers from the ongoing search zone, likely swept there by currents.
The latest breakthrough follows a wing part recovered last year from the Indian Ocean island of Reunion, which neighbors Mauritius, and confirmed by Malaysian authorities as from MH370.
Since then two more items found about 220 kilometers apart from each other in Mozambique in December 2015 and February 2016 have been examined.
The bureau has said these too were “almost certainly” from the Malaysian plane.
One of the new parts, washed up at Mossel Bay in South Africa, was an aircraft engine cowling, identified from a partial Rolls-Royce stencil.
While there was no direct link on the cowling unique to MH370, the bureau said the stencil was consistent with those developed and used by Malaysian Airlines.
Mossel Bay is more than 2,000 kilometers from Vilankulo, the Mozambique resort where an earlier piece of debris was found.
The other part, which came ashore on Rodrigues island in Mauritius, was a decorative laminate from a “work table” in the main cabin, used by no other Boeing 777 customer than Malaysia Airlines.
Given this, the bureau concluded that “part No.3 was a Malaysian Airlines Boeing 777 engine cowling segment, almost certainly from the aircraft registered 9M-MRO,” which operated as MH370.
“Part No.4 was a Malaysian Airlines Boeing 777 panel segment from the main cabin, associated with the Door R1 closet, almost certainly from the aircraft registered 9M-MRO.”
One of the pieces found in Mozambique, which had a number stencilled on it, was identified as a segment from a Boeing 777 flap track from the right wing.
The other, which had the words “No Step” on it, was part of a Boeing 777 horizontal stabilizer panel with stencilling also consistent with that used by the carrier.
Australia is leading the search for the plane in the remote southern Indian Ocean, and has so far scoured 105,000 square kilometers of deep ocean floor without finding any trace.
Australian Transport Minister Darren Chester said: “The Australian government will continue to work closely with the Malaysian government and the People’s Republic of China in our efforts to locate the missing aircraft.”
However, if nothing turns up once the designated 120,000 square kilometer zone is fully searched, it is likely to be abandoned, Australia, Malaysia and China have jointly said.
Three ships continue to hunt for the plane but winter weather has set in, with waves up to 12 meters and high winds.
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