Aussie group may hold key MH370 evidence

AN AUSTRALIAN group may hold key evidence washed up onshore from missing flight MH370, including a slipper from one passenger.

Sheryl Keen with possible MH370 debris washed up on Riake beach, Madagascar. Picture: Marc Russo Photography

POLICE have been in touch with an Australian air crash support group that believes it may have personal items belonging to victims of the MH370 disaster.

Perth woman Sheryl Keen heads Aircrash Support Group Australia and says she’s taken possession of 20 items, including shoes and handbags, found on a beach in Madagascar.

She says the items were found by American lawyer turned amateur investigator Blaine Gibson, who has been probing the disappearance of the Malaysia Airlines plane on March 8, 2014.

The plane is believed to have crashed in the southern Indian Ocean after deviating from its flight path from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. All 239 passengers and crew, including six Australians, are presumed dead.

An Australian-led ocean search is now in its final stage. Only relatively small parts of the plane’s wreckage have been found so far, on Reunion island, off Madagascar, and on other parts of Africa’s east coast.

Australian Federal Police on Monday said they’d been in contact with Ms Keen’s support group, over its belief it may have personal items that belonged to crash victims.

Possible debris from MH370. Picture: Marc Russo Photography

The Aircrash Support Group Australia believes this slipper could be from an MH370 passenger. Picture: Marc Russo Photography

The slipper marked ‘Japan Airlines’ could have belonged to one of the MH370 passengers. Picture: Marc Russo Photography

“The Australian Federal Police has been contacted by the Air Crash Support Group Australia regarding a number of items in the groups possession,” the AFP said in a statement on Monday.

It said any further questions should be directed to the Joint Agency Co-ordination Centre, set up to work with Malaysia and other stakeholders in the search for the plane.

Ms Keen has used her support group’s website to publish photos of personal effects she believes could have belonged to MH370 victims.

She’s told the Daily Mail Australia that all of the items were found on the same stretch of Riake beach in Madagascar.

The potential debris the Perth-based group has. Picture: Marc Russo Photography

A bag washed up on Riake beach, Madagascar. Picture: Marc Russo Photography

The beach is a two-hour flight to the west of Reunion Island, where a piece of wing, later confirmed to belong to MH370, was found in July 2015.

Ms Keen said Mr Gibson had handed items he’d found to authorities in Madagascar, believing Malaysian investigators would collect them.

“But we waited and waited and nobody turned up,” she said.

She said her group recently took possession of the personal effects from Madagascan authorities, and planned to hand them to the AFP.

Earlier this month, a lone vessel left Western Australia for what’s expected to be the final stage of the official search for the plane.

The vessel will make one last sweep of the southern Indian Ocean, with the search to be called off in January or February if it’s not found.

However, authorities have said it might resume if new, compelling information emerges.

The slipper in question. Picture: Marc Russo Photography

This passenger was pictured on CCTV before the MH370 flight. Picture: Supplied