Relatives of MH370 victims deliver 'debris' to Malaysian authorities

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Kuala Lumpur : Relatives of Malaysian Airlines flight MH370 victims on Friday handed over five suspected pieces of the debris discovered in Madagascar to authorities on Friday.

Flight MH370, a Boeing 777-200ER, disappeared from radar on March 8, 2014, some 40 minutes after taking off from Kuala Lumpur en route to Beijing with 239 people on board, 154 of them Chinese.

Grace Nathan, the daughter of one of the passengers on the plane, was one of the three who handed over what they said were parts of the Boeing -- one including a serial number -- to Malaysian Transport Minister Anthony Loke on behalf of the relatives at the Ministry in Putrajaya.

Nathan said that the fragments were found on the shores of Madagascar by locals between December 2016 and August 20, 2018, according to Efe news.

"The fact that debris is washing up now means that the investigation is still live. It shouldn't be closed," she said, adding that she wanted all the small pieces found to be combined like a "jigsaw puzzle".

"Maybe alone they don't tell us anything but if... (like) a jigsaw puzzle the pieces are put together they could tell us a story. They could potentially tell us about what happened to the plane."

An official report on the plane's disappearance released in July after a lengthy probe and years of searching gave no new clues about why the plane disappeared, sparking anger among relatives.

Now, the investigators need to find out whether these five fragments belong to the missing plane. Nathan also urged the Malaysian authorities to accept offers from companies such as the US' Ocean Infinity.

Ocean Infinity offered to locate the aircraft on a no-find, no-fee basis within a period of three months.

The company covered 112,000 square km with advanced equipment in just over three months and on May 29, it gave up the search.

Malaysia, China and Australia had already carried out searches that covered an area of 120,000 square km which ended with the same results.

On January 17 of 2017, the authorities from Malaysia, China and Australia announced they were suspending the search for the plane until new fragments were found that could suggest its resumption.

Published : Friday, November 30, 2018 19:00 [IST]
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