Fears souvenir hunters hoarding MH370 wreckage as South African family comes forward with find

FEARS people are inadvertently hoarding MH370 wreckage gained traction overnight after a family came forward with an intriguing find.

FEARS countless pieces of wreckage from missing Flight MH370 are gathering dust on the mantelpieces of random people’s homes has gained traction overnight after a South African family came forward with an intriguing find.

The South African Civil Aviation Authority’s Accident and Incident Investigations Division has confirmed it is sending an official to the Wartburg home of teenager Liam Lotter to collect a piece of suspected debris from the missing Boeing 777.

Mr Lotter, 18, and his cousin found the “shiny object” on a sandbank way back in December while holidaying in Mozambique with his family.

“We picked it up and I turned it around and it had like a, sort of like a curve to it and you can see where it’s been like pop riveted almost, like there’s holes on the side,” the teen told East Coast Radio Newswatch last night.

“Anyway we were quite interested to see what it was so we took it up to the house and my uncle said: ‘No, you found a boat, throw it away, it’s a piece of rubbish’ and I said: ‘No,

you know what? I’m going to do some research and see what I can find on the internet. And you know what? On the side it has sort of a serial number.”

Aviation experts have told News.com.au that the “676EB”, clearly seen printed on Mr Lotter’s piece in photos which emerged overnight, is not a serial number but a zone reference identifying it as it as part of the inboard support fairing for the outboard trailing edge flap of a Boeing 777.

The reference is in a font comparable to that of the “NO STEP” printed on a triangular piece of debris found by US blogger and MH370 private investigator Blaine Gibson, which turned up on a Mozambique sand bank last weekend.

Liam Lotter’s suspected wing tip part pictured above. The zone reference reads 676EB. Picture: Candace Lotter

A description of Mr Lotter’s piece appears in the Boeing 777 maintenance manual

The section of a Boeing 777 wing Mr Lotter’s piece is suspected to have come from. Picture: lairdkay.tumblr

If proven genuine, it will be the fourth piece of MH370 found and the second to turn up in Mozambique. A flaperon which washed up on a beach in La Reunion last July is the only piece confirmed to have come from the missing Malaysia Airlines. The man who found the piece, Johnny Begue, came forward with another suspected piece this week.

EIGHT VITAL MH370 QUESTIONS WE NEED ANSWERS TO

Mr Lotter said he and his family only realised the piece might be linked to MH370 after Mr Gibson’s find made headlines at the weekend.

Liam’s mother Candace Lotter has since been in contact with South African and Australian authorities.

An Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) spokesman told news.com.au it was holding “discussions” with its South African counterparts to determine how and when the piece would be examined. In the interim, photographs had been supplied.

US MH370 blogger/investigator Blaine Gibson with the piece of suspected MH370 debris he found on a sandbank in the Mozambique Channel last weekend. Picture: Blaine Alan Gibson

Mr Gibson’s ‘NO STEP’ debris has a font similar to that of the zone reference printed on Mr Lotter’s piece. Picture: Blaine Alan Gibson

All four finds, particularly the Lotter family’s, raise the question: how many other pieces of the missing airliner are potentially sitting in people’s homes, gathering dust on the mantelpiece or in the bedroom of some curious child (or adult) who found it on the beach?

And why didn’t all the authorities involved send an army of beachcombers to the region as soon as the flaperon was found? The ATSB says the location of the debris is consistent with its drift model analysis, so why are there still no plans to arrange an official sweep of the Mozambique Channel, La Reunion and everything in between?

Meanwhile, Mr Gibson‘s debris, suspected to have come from the horizontal stabiliser of a Boeing 777, has made an unexpected stopover in Kuala Lumpur overnight.

Australian Transport Safety Bureau chief commissioner Martin Dolan told news.com.au earlier this week that Malaysian experts would transport the part from Maputo, Mozambique to Australia on Tuesday.

The part would be examined at the ATSB lab in Canberra “early next week” by experts from Malaysia, Australia, the US and Boeing. However, Mr Dolan made no mention of a Malaysian detour and it was unclear whether or not Australian authorities had been blindsided.

“The analysis will take place in Australia,” an ATSB spokesman said this morning.

But Malaysian media reports that the piece will indeed undergo testing before being sent to Australia for “further verification”.

Independent Group member Victor Iannello told news.com.au it was vital the integrity of the debris be maintained during the stopover.

“I hope that the testing performed by Malaysia does not alter the part and compromise future testing in Australia, including buoyancy tests,” he said.