Debris likely from Japanese rocket, not MH370 (Updated)

A Japanese rocket maker says a large piece of metal that washed up on a beach in Thailand is likely part of a rocket launched by Japan, not a missing Malaysian plane.

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Tuesday morning update

Mitsubishi says metal debris likely rocket part, not MH370

TOKYO – A Japanese rocket maker says a large piece of metal that washed up on a beach in Thailand is likely part of a rocket launched by Japan, not a missing Malaysian plane.

The discovery of the metal sparked speculation that it might be from Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, which disappeared almost two years ago.

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries said Monday that the metal piece is highly likely to be part of a Japanese H-IIA or H-IIB rocket that was launched from southern Japan, based on an initial examination of photos and videos of the object.

Company spokeswoman Sayo Suwashita said officials are trying to determine which rocket and its launch date. Rocket debris falls into the ocean after every launch, and most is collected but sometimes pieces can be found some distance from the launch site, including in foreign waters, she said.

Japan has launched H-IIA and H-IIB rockets since the 2000s. The most recent H-IIA launch was in November.

Monday's story

Air Force to examine 'jet debris' amidst MH370 conjecture

The air force said Sunday it would bring a piece of suspected aircraft debris found off the Nakhon Si Thammarat coast to Bangkok, with the primary thought that it could have something to do with missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370.

The metal panel measures two by three metres. It was found by fishermen in the Gulf of Thailand just off the provincial coast on Saturday.

It was encrusted by barnacles, and fishermen said this meant it has been in the water for about a year.

Thai army aviation experts have already inspected the debris and agreed it was likely to be from an aircraft, although more tests are needed for confirmation.

The Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777, with 239 people on board, vanished late at night on March 8, 2014 en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.

Malaysian Transport Minister Liow Tiong Lai said he instructed Malaysian civil aviation officials to contact Thailand about the newly found wreckage, a curved piece of metal measuring about 2 meters by 3 meters with electrical wires hanging from it and numbers stamped on it in several places.

"I urge the media and the public not to speculate because it will give undue pressure to the loved ones of the victims of MH370," he said.

Reuters quoted aviation experts as saying the panel is unlikely to belong to the MH370 aircraft.

They agreed that while powerful currents sweeping the Indian Ocean could deposit debris thousands of kilometres away, wreckage was extremely unlikely to have drifted across the equator into the northern hemisphere.

The location of the debris in Thailand "would appear to be inconsistent with the drift models that appeared when MH370's flaperon was discovered in Reunion last July," said Greg Waldron, Asia Managing Editor at Flightglobal, an industry publication.

"The markings, engineering, and tooling apparent in this debris strongly suggest that it is aerospace related," he said. "It will need to be carefully examined, however, to determine it's exact origin."

In July of last year a two-metre-long wing part known as a flaperon washed up on a beach on the Indian Ocean island of Reunion. The island is several thousand kilometres southwest of Thailand.

Experts traced the wing part to the ill-fated MH370, the first firm evidence that it met a tragic end.

Unlike Reunion, the Gulf of Thailand is not in the path of ocean currents from the remote area of the Indian Ocean where it is believed the plane went down.

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