Debris Found Near Madagascar May Be From Missing Flight MH370
Debris washed up near Madagascar and what authorities believe could be from the missing Malaysian Airliner of flight MH370.
The 2 meter long piece of wreckage, which seemed to be part of a wing, was found by people cleaning up a beach in La Reunion, east of Madagascar.
One witness said: ‘It was covered in shells, so one would say it had been in the water a long time.’
A code was found on the wing piece, and authorities are checking with Boeing at this time to confirm that this could be a piece of the missing flight MH370.
Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 (MH370/MAS370) was a scheduled international passenger flight that disappeared on 8 March 2014, while flying from Kuala Lumpur International Airport near Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to Beijing Capital International Airport in Beijing, China.
Flight 370 last made voice contact with air traffic control at 01:19 MYT (17:19 UTC, 7 March) when it was over the South China Sea, less than an hour after takeoff. The aircraft disappeared from air traffic controllers’ radar screens at 01:21. Malaysian military radar continued to track Flight 370 as it deviated from its planned flight path and crossed the Malay Peninsula.
Flight 370 left the range of Malaysian military radar at 02:22 while over the Andaman Sea, 200 nautical miles (370 km; 230 mi) northwest of Penang in northwestern Malaysia.The aircraft, a Boeing 777-200ER, was carrying 12 Malaysian crew members and 227 passengers from 15 nations.
A multinational search effort began in the Gulf of Thailand and the South China Sea, where the flight’s signal was lost on secondary surveillance radar, and was soon extended to the Strait of Malacca and Andaman Sea. Analysis of satellite communications between the aircraft and Inmarsat’s satellite communications network concluded that the flight continued until at least 08:19 MYT and flew south into the southern Indian Ocean, although the precise location cannot be determined; Australia took charge of the search effort on 17 March, when the search shifted to the southern Indian Ocean. On 24 March 2014, the Malaysian government, noting that the final location determined by the satellite communication is far from any possible landing sites, concluded that “flight MH370 ended in the southern Indian Ocean.”
The current phase of the search is a comprehensive search of the seafloor about 1,800 kilometres (1,100 mi) southwest of Perth, Australia, which began in October 2014. Despite being the largest and most expensive search in aviation history, there has been no confirmation of any flight debris, resulting in speculations about its disappearance until now.
This story is still developing.
