South African Aviation Forum Posts Pictures of Possible MH370 Parts

31st Jan 2017

According to a South African aviation forum Avcom, a possible part of the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 was found on the South African beach.  In a post from 27^th January, forum member Steve Onions said:

This morning, a local person found some items that washed up on a beach on the Transkei coast near East London that looked like they could be from an aircraft. They sent the cell phone pics taken of these parts to one of our local aviators and the pics have been sent to our local ATC who will circulate them and notify the relevant authorities.

The post, under the topic name “Aircraft parts wash up on local beach –Transkei”. Steve also included several photos of what could be parts of the missing plane. These, the other forum members, most of whom are aviation enthusiasts, could be either a “wing to body fairing” or a “flap track canoe fairing”.

The found part could be from the trailing edge structure of the wind of a larger aircraft, such as a Boeing 777, the same model MH370 was. If it is, then it is indeed from the missing plane as this is the only unaccounted for.

The forum quickly gained attention from the Malaysian authorities, who remain on the lookout for the plane even though the official search ended recently. Senior investigator with the Transport Ministry’s Air Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB), Aslam Basha Khan contacted the forum on Saturday and advised the members on how to handle the part and also to contact the civil aviation authority in South Africa.

Mr. Khan said:

The part was found in a remote location and we were not able to get in touch directly with the person who is said to have found it. Through the forum, we contacted a friend of the said person, and have given the contact details to the South African CAA for further action.

He added:

AAIB will not be sending anyone to South Africa as yet, as it is still too premature in the course of this discovery,” Aslam said, adding that AAIB are in constant contact with the South African CAA and similar authorities around the world, for matters such as this.