Malaysia probes report of possible MH370 debris in Philippines

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia has sought assistance from Philippine police to probe a report that an aircraft wreckage with a Malaysian flag was found in the jungles of a remote island in the Philippines with possible links to MH370 plane which vanished last year with 239 people on board.

Malaysian police Inspector-General Khalid Abu Bakar said that they were seeking the assistance of Manila to validate a report lodged by a 46-year-old man on behalf of his relative, who reportedly found an aircraft wreckage while hunting for birds at Sugbay Island in Tawi Tawi.

"There is no photograph to support the claim so we are relying on our counterparts to check," he said.

On Saturday, the audio visual technician told Sandakan police that a visiting relative from Sugbay Island stumbled upon an aircraft wreckage while hunting for birds in early September.

The man claimed that his relative also saw human remains in the aircraft including on the pilots' seats.

He also claimed that his relatives had found a Malaysian flag in the wreckage and believed it was of the disappeared Malaysia Airlines aircraft MH370.

A senior Philippine National Police official at the regional headquarters for the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) said there was no report of an aircraft crashing into any island there.

Magindanao-based Regional Chief Directorial Staff Senior Supt Rodoleo Jocson, whose jurisdiction included the southernmost Tawi Tawi province, said he was puzzled by such claims.

Flight MH370 disappeared on March 8 last year, inexplicably veering off course en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people on board, most of them China nationals.

The disappearance turned into one of the biggest mysteries in aviation history, sparking a colossal hunt in the Indian Ocean based on satellite data suggesting MH370's possible path -- to no avail.

Recently a part of an aircraft door was found washed ashore in Reunion island which was identified as belonging to MH370.