The US-based lawyer’s comments came as campaigners for the MH370 families released pictures of personal items that washed up on a Madagascar beach. They hope the families can identify some of these items as belonging to their loved ones.
The items include purses, backpacks and part of a laptop case.
There’s a white, black and red “Angry Bird” purse, a tartan handbag and part of a black laptop case with the words “MENSA”. Gibson found these on Riake beach, on Nosy Boraha Island in north-east Madagascar. Besides the personal items, he also found two pieces of debris that may be from the aircraft. He’s funding his own search for MH 370-related items.
Sheryl Keen, who heads the campaigners, said that everyone has the right and opportunity to view the items. “The nature of aviation investigations usually mean that people don’t get to see the nitty gritty of it. But because these have been found by members of the public we are able to take this opportunity to display the objects,” said Keen while referring to the website, Aircrash Support Group Australia.
The debris is being examined by the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) and other experts.
K.S. Narendran was among the family members of MH370 victims who were interviewed by BBC. He told the British broadcasting organization that none of the personal items found so far belonged to his wife, Chandrika Sharma, who was on board MH370 on that fateful day on 8 March 2014.
“There’s no sense of urgency at any level,” he alleged at his home in Chennai. “So what choice do families have but to pull together and help whoever they can?”
He’s puzzled that the search zone was in the southern Indian Ocean and not where pieces of the aircraft have actually washed up thousands of miles from the seventh arc off southeast Australia where vessels have combed 105,000 sq kms of the ocean.
Another 15,000 sq kms remain before Malaysia, China and Australia decide whether to continue the search if the aircraft is not found. Underwater drones and sonar equipment have been employed in the search for the Boeing 777-200 plane.
MH 370-related items found so far include a section of wing called a flaperon, found on Reunion Island in July 2015 and confirmed as debris in September last year; and a horizontal stabilizer from the tail section, found between Mozambique and Madagascar in December 2015.
Other items found: a stabilizer panel with “No Step” stencil, found in Mozambique in February 2016; an engine cowling bearing a Rolls-Royce logo, found in March 2016 in Mossel Bay, South Africa; a fragment of an interior door panel found in Rodrigues Island, Mauritius in March 2016; and fragments including what appears to be a seat frame, a coat hook and other panels found on Nosy Boraha island in north-east Madagascar.
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