Possible debris from missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 has been found off Mozambique on a sandbank in the Mozambique Channel — the body of water between Mozambique in eastern Africa and Madagascar. (Photo provided to China News Service)
The airplane debris found in the African country of Mozambique would be transferred to Australia for examination, Australian Minister for Infrastructure and Transport Darren Chester said on Thursday.
Chester confirmed in a statement that the debris is a piece of metal of about one meter in length, which was found in a Mozambican beach.
"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 statement 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 Malaysian airline 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 in Mozambique, and delivered 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 passengers on board, most of them Chinese nationals.
Two years into the anniversary, the search operation in the southern Indian Ocean, where analysis say the aircraft ended its journey, has yielded no concrete results so far.
According to the latest search operation report issued by the Joint Agency Coordination Center in search of MH370 (JACC) in Australia on Wednesday, four ships, including a Chinese ship Dong Hai Jiu 101, are continuing the underwater search off the coast of Western Australia.
More than 85,000 square kilometers of the seafloor in the 120,000 square kilometer priority search area have been searched so far.
JACC said it is anticipated the thorough search of the 120,000 square kilometer priority will be completed around the middle of the year.
"In the absence of credible new information that leads to the identification of a specific location of the aircraft, Governments have agreed that there will be no further expansion of the search area."
