TZ MH370 debris confirmation important milestone in plane’s search says Malaysian minister

Tanzania Permanent Secretary to the Ministry of Works, Transport and Communication Leonard Chamuriho hands over a fragment suspected to be from the missing MH 370 in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, on July 15, 2016. PHOTO|REUTERS

What you need to know:

  • The confirmation offers more clues to whether the location of the current search for the missing airplane is right or not and could also help to determine how the incident could have occurred.
    The outboard flap found by fishermen in the Kojani islet near Pemba in June adds to two the number of parts that have been confirmed to belong to the Malaysian airplane that went missing in 2014.

Kuala Lumpur. The confirmation that the wing flap found near Pemba Island was from the MH370 is a key milestone in the search for the area of impact of the ill-fated aircraft, Malaysian officials say.
The confirmation offers more clues to whether the location of the current search for the missing airplane is right or not and could also help to determine how the incident could have occurred.
The outboard flap found by fishermen in the Kojani islet near Pemba in June adds to two the number of parts that have been confirmed to belong to the Malaysian airplane that went missing in 2014.
The other is a flaperon found on Reunion Island in July last year. So far twenty-two pieces of debris have been found so far along South Africa, Mozambique, Mauritius and Tanzania, according to the Malaysian Transport Minister Liow Tiong Lai. Only two of them have been confirmed while another four are almost certain to be from the missing MH370, Liow said.
The rest of the debris are hard to determine as there were no serial numbers nor any other details on them.
“[The Pemba debris] confirmation means a lot to us because we can ensure the next course of action to study the condition of the debris and how the incident had actually happened to MH370,” Mr Liow told reporters at the weekend in Kuala Lumpur.
The test results on four pieces of debris that could belong to the missing Malaysia Airlines plane, Flight MH370, are expected to be known in less than three months, he added.