50 New Debris Pieces of MH370 Possibly Found in South Africa

25th Aug 2016

American cable and satellite news channel Fox News reports that as many as 50 pieces of debris, which could be from the missing MH370 Boeing 777, were found along the coastlines of South Africa by amateur researchers.

According to the report, the debris pieces were found by individuals who were following directions provided by an independent Malaysia Airlines MH370 seeker Blain Alan Gibson.

However, aviation expert Ben Sandilands, who covers the MH370 story on his blog, casts a shadow of a doubt on this development, saying there is not enough visual evidence of any new debris found from the missing aircraft.

Prior to this find, several pieces debris from MH370 were found in South Africa as well as nearby Mozambique, Mauritius and Tanzania. All were found in a radius of about 3,200 kilometers of the coast of southeast Africa.

The latest confirmed plane debris piece was found last week on 19^th August by South African resident Barry McQuade near the town of Durban on the Mozambique coastline. However, the piece is yet to be checked for connection with MH370 flight.

 When it comes to the official search, so far it netted nothing or near to it. Beginning September, 2014 the Australia, China and Malaysia-led search teams, including sonar equipped boats, covered a over 74,000 km area in the east Indian Ocean.

The search, says Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) in an operational update from 24th August, will likely conclude by the end of this year.

It is expected that searching the entire 120,000 square kilometre search area will be completed by approximately December 2016.

The official search has concentrated in the region dubbed “The Seventh Arc” based on a “ping” data provided by a British satellite company Inmarsat that is believed to be from MH370. However, several aviation experts believe the missing Boeing entered the ocean hundreds, if not thousands, of miles north of the search area.

Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 disappeared on 8^th March, 2014, as it was flying from KLIA airport in Malaysia to Beijing Capital International Airport in China. All 239 crew members and passengers died.