Large object seen near island where MH370 debris found
A large, white object has been found floating about 70 kilometres from Reunion Island- where a piece of debris from the doomed Malaysia Airlines (MAS) Flight MH370 was found.
The white object was first noticed by an Air France pilot, the Cable News Network (CNN) quoted French Civil Aviation Authority assistant director Siva Vadivelou as saying yesterday.
The Air France flight was at an altitude of 3,000 metres, the office of the island's prefect said.
"It must be a voluminous object for the pilot to see it," Vadivelou said, in reference to the high altitude.
Although authorities diverted a merchant ship to the area and flew an aircraft over it at low altitude, nothing was found, as of yesterday.
French investigators this month had said that debris that washed up on the island in July - an airplane flaperon - was from MH370, a Boeing 777 that disappeared with 239 people aboard in March 2014.
Investigators believe the plane went down in the south-eastern Indian Ocean, and searchers have been looking for the bulk of the plane at the bottom of the ocean off western Australia.
Officials say Reunion is within the range of where debris from the missing plane could have drifted.
The ill-fated plane, in March last year, had taken off from KL International Airport (KLIA) for Beijing but mysteriously cut off all communications and made a turnback before flying along an unknown path.
On Aug 6 this year, Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak confirmed that the wing fragment spotted was that of MH370.
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