KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 24 ― Transport Minister Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai ordered today the Department of Civil Aviation (DCA) to contact its Thai counterpart to verify news reports of a suspected “plane wreckage” off its coast speculated may belong to the missing Malaysia Airlines MH370.
Liow also urged Malaysians not to share news reports of the finding pending confirmation to avoid causing “more pain to the victims’ family members”, The Star Online reported.
“It is still speculation right now,” he was quoted by the news portal as saying at the Langkawi International Airport in Kedah, referring to news reports of a large curved metal piece said to have washed up in the southern Thai province of Nakhon Si Thammarat yesterday.
Citing the village chief of Pak Phanang district, international newswire Reuters reported the piece to measure three metres long and two metres wide.
National news service Bernama reported Thai police saying the metal part has been moved to the Pak Phanang district police station pending examination by aviation experts.
MH370 vanished on March 8 two years ago with 239 people on board mid flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing under mysterious circumstances.
A metal piece that washed up on the island of Reunion off east Africa in July last year was later confirmed by French authorities to be a part of the plane’s wing, but no other traces have been reported since.
Malaysia, China whose citizens formed the majority of the passengers and Australia are still sweeping the southern Indian Ocean for traces of the jet.
