|
Australia says it is working with France, the United States and plane manufacturer Boeing on a Malaysia-led mission to examine plane debris found in the Indian Ocean to identify if it is part of Malaysian Airlines MH370.
The large piece of wreckage -- which Australia's deputy prime minister said in a statement Thursday "appears to be from an aircraft" -- was found Wednesday on the island of Reunion east of Madagascar.
Warren Truss said that Australia's transport safety bureau was working with transport authorities from the two countries on the examination of the plane part, under the leadership of Malaysia.
"The debris is being examined by experts to determine its origin," Truss said. "Any new evidence will be used to further inform and refine ongoing search efforts."
Data from before the flight's March 2014 disappearance prompted a search focus far off Australia's western coast.
Australia's Transport Safety Bureau Chief Commissioner Martin Dolan, who has been heading search efforts for Flight MH370, said that if the part proved to be from the plane, it would be consistent with theories that it crashed within the 46,000 square mile search area in the southern Indian Ocean.
Beijing-bound MH370, which vanished an hour after taking off from Kuala Lumpur International Airport, was carrying 239 passengers and crew members.
Search and rescue operations have involved around 65 aircraft and 95 ships, as well as experts from 25 countries.
After a 10-month intensive undersea search for the vanished flight, on Jan. 29 Malaysia declared that Flight MH370 was lost in an accident, with all on board killed.
Malaysia announced in April that it had spent $22 million on the search for the plane.
Calculated to the end of 2014, it equalled half the amount spent on the world's most expensive search for a missing airliner -- the hunt for an Air France flight that crashed into the Atlantic Ocean in 2009, which cost $44 million over three years. - Ankara
|
Poem
Manşetler
Spor
Son Dakika
Haber
Yerel Haberler
