Two items of debris were found in Mauritius and one in Mozambique, according to Australia’s minister for transport. different debris from the Boeing 777 that vanished 2 years ago has previously been found in each countries. The flight disappeared traveling from Malaysia to China in March 2014.
The Malaysian government is arranging to gather the items, Australian Transport Minister Darren Chester said in a statement. The debris will be flown to Australia for examination.
Two weeks ago, officials said a piece of engine cowling found in South Africa and an interior panel piece from an aircraft cabin found on Rodrigues Island off Mauritius were almost certainly from Flight 370. Those components were the fourth and fifth pieces of the plane that have been recovered since it disappeared on the way from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people on board.
An extensive underwater search of an enormous area of the Indian Ocean off Australia’s West Coast has turned up empty, with crews expected to finish their sweep of the search zone by July or August. Crews have less than 15,000 sq. kilometres (5,800 sq. miles) of the 120,000 sq. kilometer (46,000 sq. mile) search area left to scour, and there are not any plans to extend the hunt beyond that.
Chief commissioner of the Australian Transport Safety Bureau Martin Dolan, acknowledged it’s trying less likely that Flight 370 will be found as the search nears the end.
Dolan said, “We’ve covered a reasonably significant proportion of our total search area without finding the aircraft and so we’ve got to start considering the alternatives. however we’ve still got 15,000 sq. kilometres to go – which is a huge chunk, therefore it’s not as if we’ve given up.”