KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, March 2 (UPI) — A piece of a plane that washed ashore in Mozambique on the east coast of Africa over the weekend could be from missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370.
The object, reportedly a piece of horizontal stabilizer skin, is on its way to Malaysia for examination. It was found on a sandbank in the Mozambique Channel, in the same region of the Pacific Ocean where the only other confirmed piece of debris from Flight 370 was found on Reunion Island last year.
Australia’s Joint Agency Coordination Center said it has arranged for a thorough examination of the object found. Malaysia Airlines told NBC News it was “too speculative at this point” to comment.
Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 disappeared on March 8, 2014 after leaving Kuala Lumpur International Airport in Malaysia en route to Beijing with 227 passengers and 12 crew members on board. The pilots last communicated with air traffic control 38 minutes after takeoff. Three minutes later, the plane’s transponders were turned off and the plane disappeared from air traffic controllers’ radar screens.
Military radar continued to track the Boeing 777 as it made a sharp turn to the southwest, crossing back over the Malay Peninsula, and then turned again to head northwest. Malaysian authorities concluded that the flight had ended in the Indian Ocean, but no debris was ever found until last year when a right wing flaperon was discovered on Reunion Island, east of Madagascar. It was confirmed to be from Malaysia Airlines Flight 370.
