Potential MH370 debris in Tanzania to be verified

By P Prem Kumar

KUALA LUMPUR (AA) – A piece of debris found in Tanzania will be examined to determine whether it came from missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, Malaysia’s transport minister announced Saturday.

Liow Tiong Lai told reporters that the “quite large” aircraft fragment was the biggest part retrieved from the Indian Ocean to-date that might be linked to the flight that vanished more than two years ago.

"We [will] have to first confirm if it belongs to a Boeing 777 airplane. If yes, we will send a team to Tanzania to check further," he said in capital Kuala Lumpur.

His remarks came a day after Australia announced that a suspected aircraft wing part was found on Tanzania’ Pemba Island, located some 6,000 kilometers (3,728 miles) from the current 120,000 square kilometer (46,332 square mile) search area in the Indian Ocean.

Liow stressed that until investigators confirm that the debris is from MH370, members of the public should refrain from making any negative comments or speculations.

He added that alleged recent discoveries including several bags and other items found in Madagascar -- pictures of which were circulating online -- were not connected to MH370.

To-date, Malaysian and Australian authorities have confirmed that at least five pieces of debris found in Mozambique and South Africa and islands off eastern Africa “almost certainly” came from the flight, which went missing with 239 people on board March 8, 2014.

The search and rescue mission that began immediately after its disappearance involved some 160 assets inclusive of 65 aircraft and 95 vessels as well as experts from 25 countries.

After 10 months of intensive undersea search for the vanished flight, on Jan. 29, 2015 Malaysia declared that MH370 was lost in an accident, killing all passengers.

An area of more than 105,000 square kilometers has been scoured during the most intensive search in commercial aviation history.

Earlier this week, Malaysia announced that a definitive decision on whether to continue the search would be determined next month during a ministerial-level meeting with China and Australia in Kuala Lumpur.