Burnt debris may be from flight MH370

ANTANANARIVO: Five pieces of possible new debris from the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 may be investigated by authorities, after two items appeared to show evidence of fire damage.

The new items washed up on beaches in Madagascar and were found by a self-styled amateur MH370 investigator, who previously found a confirmed panel from the missing plane in Mozambique.

Blaine Gibson, a US citizen, travelled to take his new finds to the Australian Transport Safety Bureau in person, after officials failed to pick them up in Madagascar.

He says two of the pieces were burnt, and that could give the first indication that there was a disastrous fire on board.

At a briefing for relatives of some of the 239 passengers and crew on board the missing flight, families called for the possible debris to be examined to define a new search area.

Malaysia, China and Australia agreed in July that the search in the southern Indian Ocean would be suspended after the current 120 000km² expanse had been thoroughly examined with deep sea sonar equipment in the absence of credible new evidence that identified the plane’s location.

Eight relatives of lost passengers who met Australian officials co-ordinating the search on behalf of Malaysia expressed frustration that they were not given a definition of what constituted credible new evidence that would result in a continuation of the search.

Gibson attended the meeting at the Australian Transport Safety Bureau headquarters with the relatives from Malaysia, China, Australia and Indonesia and handed the five pieces over.

Malaysia has yet to collect other potential debris that he has found washed up on Madagascar since June and handed to authorities there.

“I hope that the search will go on and in my amateur opinion this constitutes new, credible evidence that justifies continuing the search,” he told reporters. – The Independent