Malaysian Air Craft |
Plane
wreckage containing 'many skeletons' and painted with the Malaysian
flag has reportedly been found in the Philippines, prompting speculation
it could be missing Flight MH370.
Police
confirmed they had received reports of the discovery in thick jungle on
the remote island of Sugbai in Tawi-Tawi province.
An
audio technician, Jamil Omar, contacted police in Malaysia to say his
aunt, Siti Kayam, had stumbled upon the wreckage while she and others
were hunting for birds.
Police
commissioner Jalaludin Abdul Rahman, based in neighbouring Borneo, said
the woman claimed she climbed into the smashed fuselage and saw
skeletons.
He said: 'Mr Jamil claimed his aunt had entered the aircraft wreckage, which had many human skeletons and bones.
'She also found a Malaysian flag measuring 70 inches long and 35 inches wide.'
According to a local media reportL 'There was a skeleton still in the pilot's seat. The pilot had his safety belt on and the communication gear attached to his head and ears.'
Speculation
grew that the wreckage could belong to the missing Malaysia Airlines
flight that disappeared in March last year with 239 people on board.
Police
remain reserved about the report, mindful of confirmation by French
authorities that part of an aircraft wing – a flaperon – found on the
island of Reunion in the west of the Indian Ocean earlier this year had
been confirmed as being from MH370.
It
would be unlikely that the flaperon had been able to drift from the
Philippines to Reunion, given that land – Borneo, the Malaysian mainland
and parts of Indonesia – would be in the way.
However,
police are understood to have not dismissed the possibility that the
flaperon could have broken off from the aircraft after it took off in
March last year to fly from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, the missing part
causing the pilots problems in handling the jet.
Adding
to the general mystery is the report by oil rig worker Mike
McKay who
told the Mail exclusively earlier this year that he stood by his
observation of an 'aircraft on fire' as he stood at night on his rig off
the southern tip of Vietnam.
For
MH370 to have come down on remote Sugbai island, it would have had to
divert from its north east course after take off and head due east
towards the lower Philippines islands.
A
catastrophic disaster, an explosion, a fire, or even a hijacking, could
have resulted in it veering around the skies, experts have said.
Australian,
Malaysian and Chinese authorities have been sharing information based
on satellite signals that have resulted in an intensive search of waters
south west of Australia in the southern Indian Ocean.
Despite
high-tech scouring of the waters and the ocean floor, there has been no
sign of the plane in that area, the only discovery confirmed as being
from the aircraft being the flaperon found earlier this year on Reunion.
Whether
the mystery of the plane's final resting place along with its 239
passengers and crew will be solved with the latest report of 'wreckage'
is expected to be known within the next day or so.
Police in Sabah, in northern Borneo, confirmed that Mr Omar had called in at the police headquarters to personally lodge a report about the wreckage.
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