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It is the latest development in efforts to solve the mystery of the aircraft, which went missing in March 2014. The plane, flying from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, had 239 people on board when it vanished. It is presumed to have crashed into the sea after veering off course. Three ships are searching a 120,000 sq km area of the southern Indian Ocean but have so far found no trace of the plane. Five pieces of debris have been confirmed as definitely or probably from the plane. Each was found thousands of miles from the search zone, though within the area models of ocean currents have indicated debris could wash up.
MH370-linked debris
1. A section of wing called a flaperon, found on Reunion Island in July 2015 - confirmed as debris in September 2015
2. Horizontal stabilizer from tail section, found in Mozambique in December 2015
3. Stabilizer panel with "No Step" stencil, found in Mozambique in February 2016
4. Engine cowling bearing Rolls-Royce logo, found in March 2016 in Mossel Bay, South Africa
5. Fragment of interior door panel found in Rodrigues Island, Mauritius in March 2016
Missing Malaysia Airlines MH370
All the debris is being examined in Australia by the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) and other experts. They use manufacturing marks on the pieces as well as samples of marine ecology like barnacles to help confirm whether they are likely to have come from the missing Boeing 777. Speaking on Thursday, Malaysia's Transport Minister Liow Tiong Lai said the team had "confirmed that both pieces of debris from South Africa and Rodrigues Island are almost certainly from MH370".
The ATSB also said both sections were "almost certainly" from 9M-MRO, which is the plane's registration. No other 777 has ever crashed in the southern hemisphere, and none has reported missing pieces. The ocean search, involving Australia, Malaysia and China, has scoured more than 105,000 sq km of seafloor so far, much of it areas which have never been explored before. But the countries have agreed that in the absence of "credible new information" the search will end by the middle of the year.
MH370: Mauritius and South Africa debris 'almost certainly' from missing plane - BBC News
Anthony Maslin and Marite Norris lost their children Mo, Evie and Otis, along with Ms Norris's father Nick Morris, when the flight came down in eastern Ukraine in July 2014. The Perth couple described the birth of Violet May Maslin as an "amazing gift". "Violet's birth is a testament to our belief that love is stronger than hate," they said in a statement. "We still live with pain, but Violet, and the knowledge that all four kids are with us always, brings light to our darkness. "As Martin Luther King said, 'Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that'."
Violet May Maslin, daughter of Anthony Maslin and Marite Norris
Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 was shot down as it flew over conflict-hit Ukraine from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur. Mr Maslin and Ms Norris had stayed in Amsterdam while their children, aged eight, 10 and 12, flew back to Australia with their grandfather. A total of 298 passengers and crew were killed, including 80 children in total.
The flight was hit by a Russian-made Buk surface-to-air missile. Western officials and Ukraine's government blame Russian-backed rebels for shooting down the plane. But Russian authorities have consistently denied responsibility, instead blaming Ukrainian government forces.
Baby joy for couple who lost three children in MH17 - BBC News
But with their mission almost complete, nothing has been found. Debris from the missing Boeing 777 has turned up on the shores of Africa, but nothing has been located in the 46,000 square mile section of the southern Indian Ocean that Fugro has been scanning. Their mission is expected to end in three months and the entire search effort could be called off after that following a meeting of key countries Malaysia, China and Australia Friday. "If it's not there, it means it's somewhere else," Fugro project director Paul Kennedy told Reuters. Flight MH370 disappeared in March 2014 with 239 passengers and crew onboard en route to Beijing from Kuala Lumpur.
The Fugro Equator returns to Australia's Fremantle Harbour for resupply
While Kennedy does not exclude extreme possibilities that could have made the plane impossible to spot in the search zone, he and his team argue a more likely option is the plane glided down and crashed beyond the area originally marked out by calculations from satellite images. "If it was manned, it could glide for a long way," Kennedy said. "You could glide it for further than our search area is, so I believe the logical conclusion will be well maybe that is the other scenario." Doubts that the search teams are looking in the right place will likely fuel calls for all data to be made publicly available so that academics and rival companies can pursue an "open source" solution — a collaborative public answer to the airline industry's greatest mystery.
Fugro's controlled glide hypothesis is also the first time officials have given some support to contested theories that someone was in control during the flight's final moments. Since the crash, there have been competing theories over whether one, both or no pilots were in control, whether it was hijacked — or whether all aboard perished and the plane was not controlled at all when it hit the water. Adding to the mystery, investigators believe someone may have deliberately switched off the plane's transponder before diverting it thousands of miles. The glide theory is not supported by the investigating agencies: America's Boeing Co, France's Thales SA, U.S. investigator the National Transportation Safety Board, British satellite company Inmarsat PLC, the U.K. Air Accidents Investigation Branch and the Australian Defence Science and Technology Organisation.
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Malaysian Transport Minister Liow Tiong Lai has said the meeting will decide the future direction of the search, with about 10,000 square kilometers (3,900 square miles) of the designated search area still to be scanned by sonar equipment towed from ships. So far, the search has not yielded a single clue. Officials have said the search for the Boeing 777, which so far cost 180 million Australian dollars ($135 million) -the most expensive in aviation history, will end later this year unless new credible evidence is found. Representatives from Voice 370, a group representing family members of the plane's 239 passengers and crew, met with Australian officials in Kuala Lumpur on Thursday. They urged the governments to suspend, rather than end the search, until new funds can be raised. They also called for a wider base of funding, including from Boeing and other plane and component manufacturers.
The three governments are involved because the airline was Malaysian, most of the passengers were Chinese, and the suspected crash site is off southwestern Australia. "We are counting on world governments not to give up on us, not to give up on MH370," said Jacquita Gonzales, whose husband Patrick Gomes was a crew member on the plane. Australian officials still hope the plane will be spotted in the current search area, but they agreed the search should continue if new funding is provided, although this is up to the governments, said Grace Subathirai Nathan, who lost her mother, Anne Daisy.
She said that officials should consider the possibility that their calculations were wrong and that the plane may have crashed outside the current search area. "This has been described as the most bizarre and an unprecedented air incident, and it requires unprecedented measures. They should go beyond what has been done," she said. Western Australia University oceanographer Charitha Pattiaratchi , whose calculations helped an American adventurer find potential debris from the missing jet, said Thursday that the plane could have crashed slightly north of the current search area. Adventurer Blaine Gibson has handed Malaysian authorities three pieces of debris and personal belongings he found on Madagascar beaches and which he suspects came from the Boeing 777 that vanished March 8, 2014.
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Missing MH370: We May Have Been Looking in Wrong Place, Fugro Says
Some families of the lost plane's 239 passengers and crew were angry over the decision to stop what is already the most expensive search in aviation history, having cost 180 million Australian dollars ($135 million). Others continued to hold out hope. "In the absence of new evidence, Malaysia, Australia and China have collectively decided to suspend the search upon completion of the 120,000-square-kilometer (46,300-square-mile) search area," Malaysian Transport Minister Liow Tiong Lai said after a meeting with his Australian and Chinese counterparts. There are fewer than 10,000 square kilometers (3,900 square miles) left to be searched. In a statement read by Liow, the ministers acknowledged that "the likelihood of finding the aircraft is fading."
The ministers said the search could be revived, but only if new evidence emerges. "Should credible new information emerge which can be used to identify the specific location of the aircraft, consideration will be given in determining next steps," their joint statement said. As Liow and the other two ministers were addressing the news conference, representatives of the passengers' families stood outside the building holding placards calling on authorities to keep trying. "Find the plane, ease our pain," read one. "We don't want the suspension to be just a way to let everyone calm down and slowly forget about it," said Grace Subathirai Nathan, a Malaysian whose mother, Anne Daisy, was on the flight. "We want them to be doing something in the interim to look for new information."
Australian Transport Minister Darren Chester said experts will continue to analyze data and inspect debris but added, "Future searches must have a high level of success to justify raising hopes of loved ones." The Boeing 777 vanished on a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8, 2014. It is believed to have turned back west and then south before dropping into the Indian Ocean west of Australia, where the search has been concentrated. Much of what happened to the plane remains a mystery, though the Malaysian government has concluded that it was deliberately steered off course. Liow said the search, hampered by bad weather and damaged equipment, will end by December.
Although the ministers were at pains to say they were not permanently ending the search, it is evident that it is highly unlikely to continue after that, given how few clues have emerged since the disappearance of the plane. Confirmed and possible debris has been found off East Africa thousands of kilometers (miles) away, but authorities have said the wreckage has provided no information that might help locate the bulk of the aircraft.
Some relatives remained hopeful that the search will resume one day. "I feel encouraged. Fearing the worst, we now have something to hang on to," said K.S. Narenderan, who lost his wife, Chandrika Sharma, on the flight. "I read into it a commitment to stay engaged in the search and to hold themselves accountable to pursue the truth." "You can suspend, but don't stop there," said Jacquita Gonzales, whose husband Patrick Gomes was a crew member on Flight 370. "Suspension can be five years, 15 years, 20 years. ... It's a long wait, so go back to the drawing board."
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