More pieces of missing Malaysian airplane MH370 are identified

The Australian government confirmed today that two items of debris recovered on a beach in Mozambique are from Malaysian Airlines 370, the airplane that mysteriously disappeared in March 2014 with 239 people on board. It is only the second time that a piece from the missing aircraft was positively identified by an official government source.

The two items were found on a beach in Mozambique about 137 miles apart. One, later identified as a segment from the right wing of the plane, was found in December 2015. The other, a piece of the horizontal stabilizer from the tail section, was found in February 2016. The latter piece is stenciled with “NO STEP” in a style consistent with Boeing 777s and Malaysian Airlines. Both are “almost certainly” from MH370, the Australian investigators say.

The Australian team will continue to conduct tests on the marine ecology present on both pieces, in the hopes that it will tell investigators something about where the plane’s wreckage could be found.

In August of last year, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak has confirmed that the plane debris discovered on Réunion Island was from MH370. Malaysian Airlines has yet to comment on the positive identification of the two new pieces.