MH370

The plane wreckage found off the Nakhon Si Thammarat coast in Thailand is suspected to belong to the Malaysian Airlines’ flight MH370 that went missing in March 2014.

Fishermen found the 2m x 3m metal part in the Gulf of Thailand on 23 January with barnacles grown on it.

Thai aviation experts, who studied serial numbers on the bolt parts, confirmed the part belonged to a Boeing 777 aircraft.

MH370 was carrying 239 passengers, most of them Chinese, from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing when it lost contact and disappeared mid-air.

A prolonged search for nearly two years yielded little with a wing part found in the French island Reunion in July 2015 being the only major find so far.

Debris found in the Gulf of Thailand will be examined by the country’s air force. A team of ten aviation experts has been formed for the purpose.

"It will be brought to Bangkok for further study as it needs special equipment to investigate what kind of aircraft it came from."

Royal Thai Air Force air vice marshal Pongsak Semachai was quoted by the Bangkok Post saying: "It will be brought to Bangkok for further study as it needs special equipment to investigate what kind of aircraft it came from.

"It does not belong to a Thai airforce aircraft."

However, experts observed it is unlikely for the MH370 debris to drift to the Northern Hemisphere.

Aviation expert Geoffrey Thomas told Reuters the fragment found in Thailand ‘just does not look like aircraft fuselage’.

He added: "It just does not make any sense. I do not think there is any connection with MH370 whatsoever."

Earlier this month, an undersea search for the aircraft found a 19th century shipwreck in the Indian Ocean off the west Australian coast.

A sonar vehicle deep tow being used to search MH370 sank after colliding with a mud volcano on 24 January.

Image: The underwater search for the missing MH370 flight has not yielded many results so far. Photo: courtesy of Australian Transport Safety Bureau / Justin Baulch.