Relatives of MH370 say they may have discovered pieces of debris

Over four years after Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 mysterious veered off course, relatives of those on board have come forward to say that they will present new pieces of debris they believe to be from the plane, to Malaysian government officials this week.

On March 8, 2014, the regularly scheduled flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing mysteriously disappeared after changing course over Vietnamese airspace, and eventually flying off radar detection. Both local and international investigators have concluded that it is most likely that the plane met its end in a remote area of the Indian Ocean; however, no motive for going there has ever been ascertained.

At present, 27 pieces of sundry aircraft debris have been found floating or washed up in and around different places in the world. Only three of those were ever concluded to have been from MH370.

Passenger and crew next of kin informed media yesterday that they would be meeting with Malaysia’s Transport Minister Anthony Loke on Friday “to hand over newly recovered debris.”

Speaking to Reuters, Calvin Shim, the husband of one of the crew members, told the outlet that five of the pieces had been recovered off of Madagascar, with the most recent debris having been found in August. No mention was made of how the group had been operating, and whether they were affiliated with any other organization.

The case has become one of contemporary time’s most enduring mysteries, with little information on exactly where and why the plane disappeared where it did. Recent investigations by the new Malaysian government have done little to elucidate this, with a 495-page report only concluding that the plane’s controls were mostly likely deliberately altered to take the plane off its route, though they could not say for certain whether this had actually happened, no who was ultimately responsible for it.

Prime Minister Mahathir has said that any future search will only happen if new clues come to light: A three-month, US-led sea search by Ocean Infinity on over 112,000 square kilometers made no significant findings, and previous searches led by Australian, Chinese, and Malaysian authorities ended in vain, with no discoveries.