Two pieces of Mozambique aircraft debris ‘almost certainly’ to from be MH370: Australian authorities

TWO pieces of debris found in Mozambique are “almost certainly from MH370”, Australia’s transport minister says.

AUSTRALIAN analysis of two pieces of debris found in Mozambique has concluded both are “almost certainly” from MH370”, Transport Minister Darren Chester said this morning.

One of the parts, a suspected horizontal stabiliser from the aircraft’s tail, was found by American adventurer and MH370 sleuth Blaine Gibson on a sandbank in the Mozambique Channel earlier this month.

South African teenager Liam Lotter came forward with a second, metre-long piece after reading about Mr Gibson’s story. He said he found the piece while holidaying with his family in Mozambique almost three months earlier and had taken it home for safekeeping.

“The analysis has concluded the debris is almost certainly from MH370,” Mr Chester said in a statement.

“That such debris has been found on the east coast of Africa is consistent with drift modelling performed by (national science body) CSIRO and further affirms our search efforts in the southern Indian Ocean.”

Liam Lotter with his metre-long piece, which is stamped with zone reference 676EB, identifying it as part of the inboard support fairing for the outboard trailing edge flap of a Boeing 777.

A close up of Mr Gibson’s ‘NO STEP’ piece

Mr Gibson and Mr Lotter’s parts were escorted to Canberra from Kuala Lumpur by Malaysian authorities last weekend.

A Malaysian team is making arrangements with South African authorities to retrieve a third possible MH370 fragment which washed up on a beach near Mossel Bay in the country’s Western Cape province earlier this week.

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That piece, found by 35-year-old archaeologist Neels Kruger, is believed to be from the inlet cowling of an aircraft engine and bears the black and white logo of Boeing manufacturer Rolls Royce.

Mr Chester said the analysis on the Mozambique debris was carried out by investigators from the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB), Geoscience Australia, Boeing and the Australian National University under the auspices of the Malaysian Investigation Team.

Details of the testing process were released by the ATSB yesterday. It is understood a further statement will be made concerning the analysis of any marine life found on the fragments once the results of those tests are in.

“The pieces were visually examined to remove all visible macrofauna and then rinsed, submerged and agitated in water to capture any loose fauna,” a bureau spokesman said.

“All water was then passed through a series of sieves with any possible macrofauna retained. The sieved material will then be sorted and possible biological material identified.

“The items were released from quarantine once they were thoroughly cleaned and all visible signs of possible contamination removed.”

The barnacle-encrusted flaperon found by beachcomber Johnny Begue on La Reunion last July

The items have been x-rayed using an advanced scanning facility developed by the Australian National University.

They bring to a tentative three the number of objects confirmed to have come from MH370 since it vanished on March 8, 2014. The Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 had 239 people on board during the overnight flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.

A flaperon that washed up on a beach in La Reunion last July has been confirmed by French authorities to be from the missing plane.

An underwater search of the southern Indian Ocean, where investigators believe the aircraft entered the water, has so far located no sign of it and is due to end in early July.

Search vessel crews suffered yet another setback yesterday when a towfish was lost for the second time this year.

However, it is unclear whether a recovery mission will be possible this time around.

In the meantime, Mr Chester said, “the search for MH370 continues”.

“There are 25,000sq km of the underwater search area still to be searched,” he said.

“We are focused on completing this task and remain hopeful the aircraft will be found.”

A third piece of possible MH370 debris was found by a South African archaeologist near Mossel Bay in the country’s Western Cape province.