Bullet-riddled MH370 debris near Mauritius, claims man; authorities say not possible

An Australian mechanical engineer, Peter McMahon, has claimed that he has discovered the debris of Malaysian Airline plane MH370, which went missing between Kuala Lumpur and Shanghai over the Indian Ocean on March 8, 2014.

He has claimed to have found the debris of MH370 with the help of Google Maps. According to the engineer, the debris is located 22.5 km north of Mauritius and 16 km south of Round Island. Daily Star reported that the Australian “pored through NASA and Google Maps since MH370 disappeared”.

The report also quoted the McMahon as saying that the flight was riddled with bullets before it went missing. However, the claim has been dismissed by investigating authorities and Malaysian Transport Minister Liow Tiong Lai.

The minister dismissed the claim that that the wreckage was found riddled with bullet marks, adding that Malaysian government has been cooperating with the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB), which has received the findings of the Australian engineer.

Even the Joint Agency Coordination Centre has dismissed the claims of the man, saying “at no stage did the ATSB suggest his evidence could be missing flight MH370”. The agency further confirmed that McMahon had contacted ATSB via Facebook and email.

The disappearance of the aircraft en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing in March 2014 with 239 people aboard ranks among the world`s greatest aviation mysteries.

Australia, China and Malaysia ended a fruitless A$200-million ($157 million) search of a 120,000 sq. km area in January last year, despite investigators urging the search be extended to a 25,000-square-km area further to the north.

In January, Malaysia signed another deal to pay a US seabed exploration firm up to $70 million if it finds the missing Malaysia Airlines aircraft within 90 days of embarking on a new search in the Southern Indian ocean.