A large piece of debris discovered on the island of Pemba, off the coast of Tanzania, in June was part of missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, Malaysia confirmed today.
The flap was found in June by residents on Pemba Island off the coast of Tanzania, and officials had previously said it was highly likely to have come from the missing Boeing 777.
On Thursday, the Australian Transport Safety Bureau said an analysis had confirmed the part was indeed from the missing aircraft.
Several pieces of debris suspected to have come from the plane have washed ashore on coastlines around the Indian Ocean since the aircraft vanished with 239 people on board during a flight from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to Beijing on March 8, 2014.
Data analysis and manufacturer simulations showed it was likely that the aircraft lost engine power before falling out of the sky at a rate of up to 20,000 feet per minute on March 8, 2014, Xinhua news agency reported.
An aircraft attempting a regular landing--or a crash-landing in water--would descend at a rate of around 20,000 feet per minute, raising doubts over previous predictions that the plane “landed” intact in the water before breaking up, the analysts said.
Australian scientists believed that prior to its final moments, the jet made a number of automated “handshake” signals with satellites on the ground near Perth in Western Australia.
(With inputs from agencies)
