AIRCRAFT debris found in Madagascar last year is “most likely” from the doomed Malaysian Airlines jet, officials have confirmed.
Flight MH370 was on its way from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8, 2014, with 239 people on board, when it vanished, and became one of the world’s greatest aviation mysteries.
The five pieces of debris found by villagers in Madagascar were handed to the Malaysian government in late November by wreck hunter Blaine Gibson and some relatives of those who died in the disaster.
A report from the MH370 Safety Investigation Team found most of the debris was from an aircraft and the panel belonged to a Boeing 777, “most likely MH370”.
The floor panel debris contained the letters and numbers WPPS61 on the corner.
Don Thompson, one of the Independent Group investigating the jet’s disappearance, was then able to work out the full code was BAC27WPPS61.
This was similar to a floorboard label found among the wreckage of the doomed aircraft, the West Australian reported.
Malaysian authorities confirmed the analysis.
Flight MH370 was flying to Beijing from Kuala Lumpur when it disappeared on March 8, 2014.
It is believed to have plunged into the southern Indian Ocean.
In July last year, investigators released a 495-page report, saying the plane’s controls were likely deliberately manipulated to take it off course but they were not able to determine who was responsible.
More than 30 bits of suspected debris have collected from various places around the world but only three wing fragments, which washed up along the Indian Ocean coast, have been confirmed to be from MH370.
An official search ended last May but Malaysia’s Transport Minister Anthony Loke said the government would consider resuming a search if provided with credible leads.
V.R. Nathan, whose wife Anne Daisy was on the doomed jet, said: “We want the government to continue searching for these debris and piece them together like a jigsaw puzzle so that we can get some clue as to what happened to the plane.”
His daughter Grace added: “The fact that debris is still washing up now means that the investigation should still be live.
“It shouldn’t be closed.”
