The scouring of the Indian Ocean by the search team organized by the governments of Australia, Malaysia, and China has yet to bear something concrete as regards the whereabouts or the final resting place of the ill-fated Malaysian Airlines Flight MH370 some two years and nine months after it disappeared on March 8, 2014. Thus, the relatives of the passengers of the ill-fated plane have taken the cudgels and do their own share in the search operations.
Apparently, some relatives of the mostly Chinese passengers of Flight MH370 traveled recently to Madagascar and decided to source the beaches themselves to look for clues on the missing plane.
Fortunately, one of the relatives found on December 7 a possible piece of debris from the plane during a search of the beaches in Madagascar, reports the International Business Times.
Jiang Hui, whose mother was among the casualties onboard Flight MH370, found a small white and sand-colored piece of board in a rocky cover at the end of Riake beach on the northeastern Île Sainte-Marie.
Several pieces of debris have washed up on the east African coasts over the last few months so the relatives of the victims decided to look on the beaches of some African countries fronting the Indian Ocean.
Excited but sad
In his pronouncement after his discovery, Jiang Hui said that he felt very excited about his finding of a possible piece of Flight MH370 debris but he also felt saddened by it.
He said that it is a small piece and will not really be able to show what happened to the plane but he hopes that the authorities of Malaysia, China, and Australia will try to find more so they can find out.
The piece has been reportedly handed over to an official from the Malaysian investigation.
Following Jiang’s discovery, Blaine Gibson, a Seattle lawyer who has found 16 pieces of debris thought to be from the plane in Mozambique and Madagascar said he had located a larger object in the same area.
Gibson explained that the new discovery just shows how important it is that those beaches are checked daily and that local people keep their eyes open. He adds that it also shows how important the visit by the families is for raising awareness.
Relatives of the passengers of the missing Flight MH370 are deeply unhappy and angry over the lack of progress made by the official investigations, reports Reuters.
According to the relatives, authorities did not pay much attention to the debris pieces that have been found over the last few months on several coasts of the Indian Ocean.
From a hijacker to a hero?
Meanwhile, it has been previously reported by the authorities that Malaysian pilot Zaharie Ahmad Shah was once suspected of plotting the disappearance of Malaysian Airlines Flight MH370 because his flight simulator at home showed a flight data that resembled the alleged flight path of the ill-fated passenger plane.
On March 8, 2014, Flight MH370 took off from Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia bound for Beijing in China, laden with 227 passengers and 12 crew members. Shortly after takeoff, it lost radio contact and disappeared from radar.
The plane has yet to be found to this day but the theories are consistent in saying that from Kuala Lumpur, Flight MH370 veered way off course and ditched into the vast Indian Ocean.
While a number of debris of the plane have already been discovered in Eastern African shores, the wreckage of the plane remains missing to this day amid the massive search that was started by the governments of Australia, China, and Malaysia spearheaded by the Australian Transport Safety Board (ATSB).