A piece of suspected plane engine part was discovered in South Africa on Tuesday and investigators would verify if it was related to the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, officials said.
The piece of debris was found along the southern coast of South Africa, near the town of Mosselbay, Malaysian Transport Minister Liow Tiong Lai said in a statement.
"Based on early reports, there is a possibility of the piece originating from an 'Inlet Cowling' of an aircraft engine. However, further examination and analysis are required in order to verify if the debris belongs to MH370," he said.
Malaysia is now in close contact with the South African authorities and a team will be dispatched to retrieve the debris, he added.
Flight MH370 disappeared on March 8, 2014 en route from Kuala Lumpur for Beijing with 239 people on board, most of them being Chinese nationals. A joint search in South Indian Ocean, where the flight presumably had ended its journey, has yet to found its wreckage.
Verification process on two suspected pieces of debris found in African country of Mozambique is now underway in Australia in order to determine whether they were from the missing plane.
