If confirmed, the object found in Mozambique would be the second piece of debris discovered from the MH370. Flight 370, which disappeared with 239 people on board, is the only known missing 777.
Advertisement
Hopes that the plane would be found were rekindled ahead of the two-year anniversary after a part suspected to be debris from the plane was found in Mozambique last week.
“If we lose this opportunity, it might become even more difficult” to obtain answers, said Zou Jingsheng, a professor whose 27-year old son, Ling Annan, was studying in Malaysia and was on the flight.
The head of Mozambique’s Civil Aviation Institute, Comandante Joao Abreu, shows a piece of debris found on a beach that could be from missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, in Maputo, March 3, 2016.
As to whether the Mozambican government would launch a search for more possible debris afterwards, Abreu said it would be considered after the identification results. Plane operators will have to ensure their flight recorder data is recoverable, while the duration of cockpit voice recordings is being extended from two to 25 hours, ICAO said.
“We’re taking another look because the areas where we haven’t been certain are large enough to contain an aircraft – which is why we’re going over them”, Dolan said, adding that “the sea floor is very rugged and complex”.
He said there were no plans to expand the search area beyond the 120,000 sq kilometres, which is expected to be completed in June.
The airline said on February 24 that 42 families had settled claims, and 118 had begun legal proceedings.
Also present at the memorial was Mr Blaine Gibson, the lawyer turned “adventurer” who has spent the past year going across the globe in search of clues on the plane’s whereabouts.
The three-member Malaysian team comprising investigators and personnel from DCA and Malaysia Airlines, is now in Mozambique with their Australian counterparts following news of the discovery of the aircraft part early this week, he told reporters after opening the new RM7 million Kepong MCA building, here, yesterday.
Advertisement
But when he and the owner of the boat found the “no step panel” on a sandbank, he said he felt that it could “possibly” be part of a Boeing 777 and that was why he “took care that it got into the hands of the local authorities ” “. The plane changed course for no apparent reason and vanished.
