Malaysia, Australia move to examine aircraft debris

Australian and Malaysian officials were moving to retrieve and examine suspected aircraft wreckage found on the east African coast to determine whether it came from missing flight MH370, Malaysia’s transport minister said Thursday.

The one-metre long piece of debris found on a Mozambique beach could provide fresh clues into the mystery of the Malaysia Airlines flight, which disappeared two years ago.

“From the pictures shown, there is high probability the plane debris is from a Boeing 777 plane,” Malaysian transport minister Liow Tiong Lai told reporters in Kuala Lumpur.

While cautioning that this needed to be verified, his comments appeared to be firmer than the “high possibility” he had mentioned on Wednesday.

MH370, which was carrying 239 passengers and crew when it vanished on March 8, 2014 on an overnight flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, was a Boeing 777. Transport minister Darren Chester of Australia said the debris would be transferred to Australia to be examined by officials and experts.