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Missing MH370 Debris Surfaces Near Madagascar As Second Anniversary Of Disaster Approaches

By Abdul Kuddus
Published on: 04:52 PST, Mar 2, 2016

Nearly two years after the mysterious disappearance of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, a piece of debris from the plane has reportedly emerged off the coast of Madagascar.

NBC News quoted a source as saying, “An object that could be debris from a Boeing 777 has been found off Mozambique and is being examined by investigators searching for missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370.”

Reportedly, investigators from Malaysia, Australia, and the U.S. have examined photographs of the debris and hinted that it possibly belonged to a Boeing 777. The debris found on a sandbank in the Mozambique Channel could be the second part of the missing MH370.

According to the Independent, the new piece of MH370 debris “has been found in the same part of the southern Indian Ocean where the only other confirmed piece of debris from the flight, a flaperon, was found on Reunion Island in July 2015.”

MH370 disappeared on March 8, 2014, en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people on board. Air traffic control lost contact with Flight MH370 within an hour after it took off from Kuala Lumpur as it flew over Vietnam. The disappearance of the flight has continued to baffle investigators.

Speculation was that Malaysia Airlines MH370 “flew for hours on autopilot until it ran out of fuel and crashed into the remote Indian Ocean in an area now known as the Seventh Arc, about 1,200 miles off the coast of the Australian west coast city of Perth.”

Following the disappearance of MH370, a sustained ocean search failed to return conclusive evidence on the exact cause of the disaster. The search effort involved intensive scanning of sea-floor terrain around the Indian Ocean, assisted by high-precision sonar scanners.

The New York Times highlighted an interesting aspect of MH370 investigation.

“Under international aviation conventions, Malaysia is leading the overall Flight 370 investigation because the aircraft was registered in Malaysia and took off from Kuala Lumpur. The ocean search is being led by Australia, whose ports are nearest the search area. But the wing part found on Réunion is being examined at a laboratory near Toulouse, France, because it washed ashore on French territory.”

According to CNN, authorities from Malaysia Airlines said it is too early to comment on the investigation and called it “speculative” at this point.

The recent findings assume significance because Malaysian authorities are expected to release a report on the second anniversary of MH370 disaster, which falls on March 8 of this year. Any false hopes over the course of the investigation could jeopardize the reputation of the airline.

Reportedly, an incorrect declaration could reignite frustrations among the relatives of passengers who were aboard MH370 and further dent Malaysia’s credibility.

The discrepancies of the findings have taken a toll on the relatives. Already, Malaysia Airlines is facing numerous lawsuits filed by anguished family members of the missing MH370 who are unhappy with the handling of the disaster.

Many of them have given up hope. Others continued to believe that their loved ones could still be alive. The search for the plane wreckage in the Indian Ocean was likely to finish in mid-2016.

The fresh discovery of the missing MH370 debris could make Malaysian officials eager to report conclusions and put the mystery of Flight MH370 behind them.

[Photo by Kevin Frayer/Getty Images]

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