Maldives debris not from MH370 – Malaysia

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia – A Malaysian team inspecting debris that washed up in the Maldives has so far found nothing that came from missing flight MH370, Malaysia’s transport minister was quoted as saying on Friday, August 14.

Malaysia sent experts to the Maldives this week to check on reported debris found on the coral atoll nation after a wing part from the ill-fated plane was found on Reunion island in the Indian Ocean to the south.

Transport Minister Liow Tiong Lai said his team had examined the Maldives debris.

“They are not related to MH370 and not even plane material,” he told The Star newspaper.

Liow said the investigators would continue examining any further unidentified flotsam found on the Maldives for links to the Malaysian Airlines Boeing 777 that disappeared in March 2014.

Malaysia last week said the wing part that washed ashore on Reunion had been confirmed by experts as coming from the missing jet.

That marked the first confirmed evidence that the plane, which was carrying 239 passengers and crew, had met a tragic end in the Indian Ocean in March 2014.

After that discovery, the Malaysian authorities alerted nearby Madagascar and the South African coast to be on the lookout, saying it was possible debris would wash up in those locations. Mauritius also launched search operations.

So far, no further debris from MH370 has been confirmed.

The Boeing 777 disappeared on March 8 last year, sparking the largest multinational search operation in history, now focused on the southern Indian Ocean based on satellite data hinting at the plane’s path. – Rappler.com