Debris found in Mauritius might be from missing flight MH370

Australia says piece of debris found on Mauritian island will be examined to see if it is from missing Malaysian Airlines Flight MH370

Boeing 777-300 ER pictured at Hangar 2 of PT Garuda Maintenance Facility (GMF) at Soekarno-Hatta airport near Jakarta, Indonesia, March 19, 2016.
TRT World and Agencies

Boeing 777-300 ER pictured at Hangar 2 of PT Garuda Maintenance Facility (GMF) at Soekarno-Hatta airport near Jakarta, Indonesia, March 19, 2016.

Australia said a piece of debris found east of Africa on a Mauritian island will be examined to see if it is part of Boeing 777 Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, which went missing two years ago, becoming one of the world's greatest aviation mysteries.

The debris was found by hotel guests according to William Auguste, who owns the Mourouk Ebony Hotel on Rodrigues Island, about 560 km (350 miles) east of the main island of Mauritius.

"For sure it looked like part of an aeroplane - it looks like it's from the inside part of it," Auguste said. "...there was wallpaper inside of the plane, you can see this design and part of it is still there."

Auguste said the wreckage was taken to police.

If the debris is confirmed to be from the missing plane, this would make it the first interior part to be found yet.

Images of the debris compared to the wallpaper in a similar Boeing plane were shared on Twitter by aerospace and aviation enthusiasts.

The plane which went missing in March 2014 with 239 people on board was travelling from the Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.

At the time Australia led a thorough search for the plane but failed to find evidence of its whereabouts.

The country's Transport Minister Darren Chester said the debris found last week was an "item of interest."

"The Malaysian government is working with officials from Mauritius to seek to take custody of the debris and arrange for its examination," Chester said in a statement.

The minister did not comment on what part of the missing Boeing 777 the debris was suspected to have come from.

"...Until the debris has been examined by experts, it is not possible to ascertain its origin."

Last month, two pieces of debris found in Mozambique were "almost certainly from MH370," Australia's transport minister said, following an analysis by technical specialists.

In 2015 a wing part was found on the Indian Ocean island of Reunion, which was assumed to be part of the plane.

Australia said that over 95,000 square kilometres of a 120,000 square kilometre target zone had been searched, and the remaining areas would be covered by June, which is when the search is scheduled to end.

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