Malaysia’s government said on Monday that debris has been found in the Maldives and that it will send a team to the Indian Ocean island nation to determine whether it came from a plane.
Last week, Malaysia said a wing fragment found on the Indian Ocean island of Reunion was confirmed to be from Malaysia Airlines Flight 370.
The plane went missing March 8, 2014, with 239 people aboard while flying from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.
The search was continuing on Reunion. Local municipal workers combed the island’s eastern shore, hefting bags they filled with whatever they found: old cloth, part of a tire, plastic bottles and other objects they found washed up on the rocks and sand.
But Malaysia’s Transport Minister Liow Tiong Lai said it was premature to speculate whether the debris found in the Maldives is connected to Flight 370. He said the Malaysian team will first try to determine whether the debris is from a plane before proceeding further.
He didn’t give details on what kind of debris was found.
“I urge all parties to allow for the verification process to take its due course. Undue speculation will only stress the families and loved ones, anxiously awaiting news on this matter,” Liow said in a
statement.