Tanzania hands over potential wreckage from missing plane to Malaysia

Tanzania's Civil Aviation Authority on Friday handed over to Malaysian officials a piece of debris potentially from a Malaysia Airlines plane that went missing in 2014.

Flight MH370, which had 239 people on board, had been en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.

Malaysian officials had travelled to Dar es Salaam to collect the piece of a wing found off the Tanzanian island of Pemba. Its discovery was announced in June, with Malaysian officials saying it was the biggest fragment linked to the missing aircraft so far.

Malaysian Transport Ministry investigator Aslam Basha Khan said in Dar es Salaam that it was too early to say whether the fragment came from the lost aircraft.

He said Malaysia was currently investigating wreckage found in Mozambique, Madagascar, Mauritius and South Africa.

John Feakes, the Australian high commissioner to East Africa, said Australia was leading the investigation into the missing plane.

Pieces of the plane found on coastlines around the Indian Ocean indicate that it may have crashed south-west of Australia. [aboutcroatia.net]