The piece of aircraft wreckage, believed to be from MH370, was found on a beach on the eastern coast of Mozambique. Photo / Jean Viljoen
The piece of aircraft wreckage, believed to be from MH370, was found on a beach on the eastern coast of Mozambique. Photo / Jean Viljoen
Another piece of aircraft wreckage, believed to be from MH370, has added strength to the belief that the plane was not under the control of a pilot when it smashed into the southern Indian Ocean.
A South African tour operator in Mozambique says he found the large triangular-shaped piece, measuringabout a meter wide and a meter long, on the country's east coast.
The fact that it is badly mangled with torn edges has led experts to conclude that the aircraft was not glided down for a "soft" landing on the sea - a claim by those who believe pilot Zaharie Ahmad Shah turned 'rogue' and took control of the aircraft on a suicide flight to end in the ocean where it would sink and drown everyone on board, the Daily Mail reports.
The part found off Mozambique is one of an increasing number of pieces found off the African coast, suggesting the pieces had drifted with the currents from the suspected crash site in the southern Indian Ocean, some 2000km from south eastern Australia.
The twisted and torn part has turned attention back onto theories that the aircraft met with a catastrophe - an explosion or fire - after taking off from Kuala Lumpur for Beijing in March 2014 and that Zaharie and his co-pilot, Fariq Abdul Hamid, had attempted to turn back before becoming unconscious.
The theory is that the aircraft then continued flying on auto-pilot until it ran out of fuel and plunged into the ocean - in contrast to the chief pilot deliberately taking control of the plane and taking it on a suicide glide into the sea.
Mike Exner, a member of IG - the Independent Group of experts who have been studying all aspects of the aircraft's disappearance - believes the newly-found chunk of metal has been ripped from the tail of the Boeing 777.
Police carry a piece of debris from aircraft, also believed to be from MH370, found in the coastal area of Saint-Andre de la Reunion. Photo / AP
He also notes that the piece of debris carries a Boeing identification number, leaving little doubt that it is from the missing jet, as no other 777's have come down in the Indian Ocean.
Australian aviation writer Ben Sandilands said today that the discovery of the crumpled piece ought to end claims that the Malaysia Airlines jet was glided to a smooth landing on the ocean.
"Whatever part of the jet it comes from, the extensive damage carried by the piece of suspected wreckage is inconsistent with widely-promoted theories that MH370 was landed under pilot control," he said.
He added that a clear implication from the state of the newly-recovered part is that the plane crashed at a high rate of descent after its fuel was exhausted.
Referring to theories that the plane had been glided down to the surface by the pilot, Mr Sandilands said that "a lot of reputations have been nailed to stories that have fed these fantasy reports about MH370, all of which look silly when pieces like this apparent part are recovered."
The tour operator who found the part off Mozambique, Jean Viljoen, told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation: "It's just the one very big piece that I've found so far, but I'm going up and down our coastline with my boat and trying to see if there's more."
