KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 11 — The Department of Civil Aviation (DCA) has been instructed to verify a report that a wreckage suspected to be from Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 had been discovered off the coast of the Philippines, Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai said today.
The transport minister said Putrajaya is currently unable to confirm if the report is true, and urged everyone against further speculation but to allow the DCA to conduct its investigation.
“I have told the DCA to look into the report. We don’t know if the report is true, so we need to verify it first.
“Let’s not speculate and give space to the DCA to conduct its investigation,” the MCA president told reporters after his party’s annual general meeting at its headquarters here.
Local daily, The Star reported last night that a Filipino had lodged a police report claiming to have found a plane wreckage with human remains inside.
He was reported to have said that the wreckage was discovered by his nephew.
The man, an audio visual technician in his 40s, was reported saying his nephew and several others were hunting for birds when they spotted the aircraft wreckage on the island of Ubian.
The man claimed that they managed to get near the wreckage and found skeletal remains in the pilot’s chair with the seat belt fastened.
Before leaving the area, he said the group took a flag they found in the wreckage.
Earlier today, Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar said the Malaysian police have contacted their counterparts in the Philippines to verify the report but have yet to verify the report to date.
Flight MH370 disappeared on March 8 last year while en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 passengers and crew on board.
Last month, French authorities confirmed that a piece of a wing flaperon, found on the shore of Reunion island in the Indian Ocean, belonged to the missing MH370 aircraft.
