A Malaysia Airlines moist towelette that washed up on a Western Australian beach four months after MH370 vanished is unlikely to be linked to the missing plane, investigators said Tuesday.
Flight MH370 disappeared on March 8, 2014 with 239 people on board and no sign of the aircraft has ever been found. It is thought to have gone down in the Indian Ocean off Australia’s west coast. A record-breaking international search operation for the missing passenger plane has been taking place over the past 12 months.
Cervantes residents Kingsley and Vicki Miller stumbled across the towelette branded with a Malaysia Airlines logo some 125miles north of Perth. The couple told Nine News the discovery was “very unusual”.
They added: “If it had of been opened and found lying there it would have been completely different”.
The paper towel was found in July last year, but the discovery has only just become public knowledge. Officials have said it is “unlikely” the Malaysia Airlines towelette will definitely be linked back to the missing plane.
The Australian Transport Safety Bureau told Agence-France Press: “A 6cm x 8cm moist towelette in wrapping branded with the Malaysia Airlines logo was found at Thirsty Point on 2 July, 2014.
“It was handed in to the WA [Western Australia] police.
“It is unlikely, however, that such a common item with no unique identifier could be conclusively linked with MH370.”
The ongoing search for Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 has been narrowed to a patch of ocean floor some 1,000 miles from the coast of Perth.
So far more than 26,000 square kilometres – over 40 percent – of the priority zone of the seabed where the plane likely went down has been searched using specialist equipment. Searchers hope to have completed the designated underwater search area by May.