'Plane wreckage' fuels talk of MH370
Published on: Monday, January 25, 2016
BANGKOK: A piece of suspected plane wreckage has been found off the coast of southern Thailand, a local official said on Saturday, prompting speculation it might belong to Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370, which vanished nearly two years ago.A large piece of curved metal washed ashore in Nakhon Si Thammarat province, where villagers reported it to the authorities to help identify it, Tanyapat Patthikongpan, head of Pak Phanang district, said."Villagers found the wreckage, measuring about 2m wide and 3m long," he said.
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The find has fuelled speculation in the Thai media that the debris could belong to MH370, which disappeared with 239 people on board during a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing in March 2014.There has been no official confirmation that the wreckage belongs to a plane. And Patthikongpan added that "fishermen said it could have been under the sea for no more than a year, judging from barnacles on it." Investigators believe someone may have deliberately switched off MH370's transponder before diverting it thousands of miles off course. Most of the passengers were Chinese. Beijing said it was following developments closely.A piece of the plane washed up on the French island of Reunion in July 2015 but no further trace has been found.
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Lingering uncertainty surrounding its fate has tormented the families of those on board. Some have said even the discovery of debris would still not solve the mystery. Meanwhile, in LANGKAWI, Transport Minister Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai said he has asked the Department of Civil Aviation Director-General Datuk Azharuddin Abdul Rahman to contact the Thai authorities for more information and confirmation.
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"At the moment, it is mere speculation as we have not received any confirmation from Thailand," he said when met at the Langkawi International Airport, Sunday.Liow urged the public not to speculate on matters involving MH370 as it would cause distress to the victims' next of kin.Flight MH370 went missing from the radar screens on March 8, 2014 while en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, with 227 passengers and 12 crew members on board.The Boeing 777 plane has yet to be found even after a massive search operation in the southern Indian Ocean, where flight MH370 is believed to have ended after veering from its original route.Liow said the search for MH370 was still focused on the southern Indian Ocean based on the suggestion of the experts."We had found a wreckage on Reunion Island. We believe in the experts' suggestion. We are conducting the search within 60,000 square km under the second phase."The first phase also covering 60,000 square km had been completed, but we did not find anything. Hopefully, we can complete the second phase in a few months' time. Our focus is on the wreckage that we had found," he said.Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
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On July 29, 2015, a flaperon was found on La Reunion, a small French-owned island in the Indian Ocean, and sent to France for further analysis.On Aug 6, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak confirmed that the flaperon found on the island belonged to Malaysia Airlines, flight MH370.