MH370: 22 pieces of debris found so far

Transport Minister Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai said, the confirmation on the debris, a flaperon found on Reunion Island in July last year and an outboard flap found on the island of Pemba, off the coast of Tanzania, in June this year, was important to determine how the incident could have occurred.

"This confirmation means a lot to us because we can ensure the next course of action to study the condition of the debris and how the incident had actually happened to MH370," he said.

Liow said four pieces of debris were highly likely to be of MH370 but the rest were hard to determine as there were no serial numbers nor any other details on them.

He was met by reporters after visiting the Bintulu Port Authority office in Tanjung Kidurong, here, today.

"The Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) expert said the drifting pattern showed that the search we were doing was within the right area. That was why we found debris along the area," he said.

He stressed that the search for MH370 in the remaining 10,000 square kilometres was expected to be completed by the year-end.

To date, the search for the missing aircraft has covered 120,000 square kilometres in the southern Indian Ocean, off Australia's west coast.

Flight MH370 disappeared on March 8, 2014 while en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 passengers and crew on board.

The plane has yet to be found despite a massive search operation in the southern Indian Ocean where it is believed to have ended its flight. -- Bernama