Officials are investigating whether a piece of metal debris found off the coast of the African nation Mozambique is that of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 that vanished from radar almost two years ago.
Citing sources close to the investigation, NBC News reported the piece of debris was found on a sandbank in the Mozambique Channel, the section of the Indian Ocean that flows between Madagascar and Mozambique.
NBC reported investigators in Malaysia, Australia and the U.S. have examined photos of the possible debris and a source close to the investigation told the news station that it could be a horizontal stabilizer from a Boeing 777.
WATCH:: Australian officials to analyze suspected MH370 debris found in Mozambique
A U.S. official close to the investigation told CBS News the debris is a “fixed leading edge, right hand horizontal stabilizer,” which is found in the tail section of a plane.
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Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 disappeared on March 8, 2014 with 239 people on board.
The jetliner veered sharply off course and flew for hours with its communications systems disabled before disappearing.
Several ships scoured more than 90,000-square-kilometres of the Indian Ocean, about 1,800 kilometres west of Australia.
Last summer, the only confirmed piece of MH370 debris was found on Reunion Island, off the coast of Madagascar.
In July, island workers found a piece of an airplane wing, known as a flaperon, measuring about two metres long by one metre wide.
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Officials later confirmed the flaperon was from the missing MH370 jetliner.
Late Wednesday, Malaysia’s Minister of Transport Liow Tiong Lai took to Twitter on Wednesday to urge caution on the suspected debris found in Mozambique.
“Based on early reports, high possibility debris found in Mozambique belongs to a B777,” Lai tweeted.
https://twitter.com/liowtionglai/status/705050195965313024
“It is yet to be confirmed & verified. @dca_malaysia working w Australian counterparts to retrieve the debris,” he said. “I urged everyone to avoid undue speculation as we are not able to conclude that the debris belongs to #mh370 at this time.”
The Associated Press reported Mozambique’s National Director of Civil Aviation Joao Abreu dismissed the report, saying authorities have found no part of the missing plane.
–with a file from The Associated Press
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