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MISSING FLIGHT MH370

AIRCRAFT

MH370: ‘Seat and window parts’ found on Réunion

Seat cushions and window panes have been found on the French island of Réunion, according to a Malaysian minister. The unconfirmed report comes days after a wing part from the missing MH370 flight was washed up on the island.

Published: 6 August 2015 10:54 CEST
MH370: 'Seat and window parts' found on Réunion
Police have been scouring the beaches of Réunion since last week. Photo: AFP

Aircraft seat cushions and window panes have been found on the Indian Ocean island where wreckage from MH370 was recovered, Malaysia's transport minister said on Thursday.

“We have also found debris like window panes, aluminium foil and seat cushions,” Liow Tiong Lai told AFP.

He later specified he was referring to aircraft seats and windows. 


(Police investigate a piece of debris on a Réunion beach. Photo: AFP)

French authorities are yet to confirm the new findings and news agency AFP quoted a legal source close to the French probe into the crash, that investigators had no new plane debris in their possession.

Reports of the wreckage come one day after the Malaysian prime minister confirmed that the flaperon – a part of an aircraft's wing that washed up on the shore of the island last week – was from the missing flight MH370.

 
French prosecutors were more cautious in their initial findings on Wednesday than Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, saying only that there was a “very high probability” that the wing part was from the Malaysian Airlines flight. 
   
But they confirmed the part was from a Boeing 777, of the type that vanished without trace on March 8, 2014, after veering off course while flying from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.
 

(Locals have joined the hunt for more potential plane parts. Photo: AFP)   
 
The disappearance of the plane, which had 239 people on board, sparked a colossal, multinational sweep of the seas for wreckage, and a myriad of conspiracy theories about its fate.
   
France has a legal involvement in the investigation because it lost four citizens in the incident.
 
More to follow

 

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AIRCRAFT

Has a Lancaster bomber been discovered under Denmark’s seas?

A World War 2 aircraft may have been found at the bottom of the sea near the Danish island of Langeland.

Published: 16 September 2019 12:25 CEST
Has a Lancaster bomber been discovered under Denmark’s seas?
Photo: Foto-VDW/Depositphotos

The aircraft, discovered in waters off the southern tip of the island, could be a Lancaster, a British bomber used during the 1939-45 war.

Denmark’s Navy has issued a temporary ban on diving, fishing, sailing or anchoring in the area due to the possibility of live ammunition being amongst the wreckage, vice commander of the Royal Danish Navy’s diving unit Bo Petersen told Ritzau.

“We received a civilian report that a diver had seen what looked like the wreckage of an old aircraft. It is probably a Lancaster bomber down there. The diver said there were also objects that could be bombs. We are responding to that,” Petersen said.

The vice commander stressed that the identity of the airplane was yet to be confirmed.

“We can’t go out and check what we’ve been told because there is too much wind and high waves,” he said on Sunday.

But a Navy diving team would be despatched at the earliest possible juncture, he added.

In a tweet, the Danish military confirmed investigation would take place “in the coming days”.

“We’ll dive down to the wreckage and conduct a thorough investigation of the surrounding area for ammunition. We will thereby be able to state whether the area can be re-opened or whether we need to remove the ammunition to make the area secure,” Petersen said.

The Lancaster, a four-engine British bomber, was first produced in 1941.

According to British Royal Air Force figures, 7,377 Lancasters in total were made. After the war, they were used as reconnaissance aircraft until 1956.

There are now only two airworthy examples of the aircraft in the world – one in Canada and one in the UK.

Although the discovery in Danish waters is highly unusual, Petersen noted that a bomber aircraft was also found in the area during the construction of the Great Belt Bridge in the late 1990s.

READ ALSO: Danish schoolboy finds buried German WW2 aircraft and pilot

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