Two new pieces of debris found on the Mozambique coast are “highly likely” from the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 aircraft that vanished in March 2014, Australian officials said on Thursday, March 24.
Australian transport minister Darren Chester released a statement to Reuters about the fragments found along the coast of East Africa. “The analysis has concluded the debris is almost certainly from MH370,” he said, adding: “That such debris has been found on the east coast of Africa is consistent with drift modeling … and further affirms our search efforts in the southern Indian Ocean.”
MH370, a Boeing 777, mysteriously vanished two years ago, while heading from Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. It’s been speculated that someone had deliberately turned off the transponder of the aircraft, and diverted it to fly over the Indian Ocean. The flight had 239 passengers on board at the time.
The new debris was found by American lawyer Blaine Gibson, a Seattle resident who describes himself as a part-time adventurer. After Gibson’s discovery was made, a teen from South Africa came forward and said that he may have found another piece from the plane on the coast of southern Mozambique in December 2015.
The latest discoveries follow the highly-publicized discovery of a wing flap from the aircraft, which was found on the island of Reunion in the Indian Ocean in July 2015.