New debris from Malaysian Airlines flight MH370 could cause investigations to reopen

On Friday, 30 November, the Transport Minister of Malaysia, Anthony Loke Siew Fook, will be meeting with the families of the crew and passengers aboard Malaysian Airlines flight MH370, which disappeared en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8, 2014.

The families will turn over to the government debris found off the coast of Madagascar, supposedly from MH370. There are five pieces of debris that were found there, with one piece still having a readable portion of a label still on it.

239 people were on board the flight. The cause of disappearance of the flight more than four years ago, as well as the plane’s whereabouts remains unsolved to this day.

Loke said in Parliament on Thursday, November 29, “The government has already stated that if credible evidence emerges and the findings convince us that we can find the missing aircraft, we will reconsider.

We don’t completely shut down the possibility of resuming the search mission, but the government can’t go on searching without credible leads, without any solid evidence.”

For three years, a joint mission from Malaysia, China and Australia combed the Indian Ocean, here the aircraft was supposed to have crashed, covering 120,000 square kilometers and costing more than US 144 million.

A deep sea exploration mission of the Indian Ocean was also carried out by US-based Ocean Infinity, to no avail. It was called off at the end of a few months ago, at the end of May.

A nearly 450 page report was published by the Malaysian International Civil Aviation Organisation’s Annex 13 Investigation team in July of this year, which has been questioned by members of the Independent Group of investigators, claiming that the investigation was influenced politically. Victor Iannello, an American investigator, has also called out the report for being edited before it was published.

Read related: Official Report: MH370 likely broken-up into pieces

The report absolves pilot Zaharie Ahmad Shah from culpability in the incident.

Voice370: The MH370 Family Association, issued a statement with regards to meeting with Loke, saying,

“It is four months since the Annex 13 Safety Investigation team submitted its report.

At the time of release of the Annex 13 team’s report, potential aircraft debris remained uncollected in Madagascar.

There has been no word on further efforts/developments from Malaysia since the release of the aforementioned report.”