Debris found in South Africa, Mauritius 'almost certainly' from MH370: Malaysian minister

The debris found in South Africa and the Mauritian island of Rodrigues were confirmed to be "almost certainly" from MH370, according to Malaysian transport minister Liow Tiong Lai on Thursday (May 12).

The two pieces of debris - an engine cowling piece with a partial Rolls-Royce logo and an interior panel piece from an aircraft cabin - were examined by a team of international experts in Australia. The Malaysian ICAO Annex 13 Safety Investigation Team has concluded that both pieces of debris are consistent with panels found on a Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 aircraft, the press release said. 

"As such, the team has confirmed that both pieces of debris from South Africa and Rodrigues Island are almost certainly from MH370," said Mr Liow.

"This complements the results from the previous examination in March during which the team confirmed that the Mozambique debris were almost certainly from MH370."

He added that the governments of Malaysia, Australia and China continue to be "wholly committed" to the search for MH370. To date, more than 105,000 square kilometres of the search area have been completed, he added. 
​
The Malaysia Airlines flight vanished in March 2014 when en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, with 239 people on board.