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BANGKOK (AP) - A large chunk of metal that could be from an aircraft washed ashore in southern Thailand, but Malaysian authorities on Sunday cautioned against speculation of a link to a Malaysia Airlines flight missing almost two years.

International researchers not directly affiliated with the Australian Transport and Safety Bureau, which is coordinating the underwater search, believe MH370 rests at the northern tip of the ATSB’s defined area rather than the south, which is the current focus. A new likely splash zone was identified by internationally respected physicist, mathematician and algorithm modeller, Dr Henrik Rydberg in a report released on Monday. ... That conclusion matches the results of analysis undertaken by specialists from all over the world, working independently of each other, in the wake of the flaperon find. The momentum has finally reached the ATSB, which released...

Initial models of where potential debris from a missing Malaysia Airlines passenger jet might first wash up had incorrectly identified Indonesia as the most likely location, the Australian body leading the search said on Wednesday. Flight MH370 disappeared without a trace in March 2014 with 239 passengers and crew on board and search efforts have focused on a broad expanse of the southern Indian Ocean off Western Australia. A piece of aircraft debris that washed up on the French island of Reunion last week roughly 3,700 km (2,300 miles) from the expected crash zone was consistent with where the plane...

Fishermen from this village believe they may have seen the missing Malaysia Airlines flight on the night it disappeared flying low over the Gulf of Thailand. It's not clear whether what they saw was flight MH370 or whether it is the latest in a string of false leads in the search for the missing plane, but if true it would suggest that the plane may have flown low to avoid radar, what is known as "terrain masking." On March 8 flight MH370 disappeared from radar as it flew north over the Gulf of Thailand towards Vietnam en route to Beijing....

Just confirmed on the radio.

KUALA LUMPUR: A part number on aircraft wreckage recovered in the Indian Ocean confirms it came from a Boeing 777, a Malaysian official said Friday, expressing confidence that the mystery of Flight MH370 was close to being solved. "From the part number, it is confirmed that it is from a Boeing 777 aircraft. This information is from MAS (Malaysia Airlines). They have informed me," deputy transport minister Abdul Aziz Kaprawi told AFP. The wing component found on the French island of La Reunion bears the part number "657 BB", according to photos of the debris. AFP was not immediately available...

Scientifically speaking, there's no reason the airplane fragment found Wednesday on Reunion island in the Indian Ocean, couldn't be from Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 — even though it's 4,000 miles away from MH370's last known position before it vanished. Investigators said it's too early to tell for sure whether the fragment really is from Flight 370, which disappeared with 239 people aboard in March 2014. But the Joint Agency Coordination Centre, the Australian agency working with Malaysia to oversee the mammoth search, said the location of the fragment would be "consistent with other analysis and modelling that the resting place...

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — After more than a year of waiting the first piece of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 has been found. Experts have confirmed that the debris found on Reunion Island last week was that of Malaysian Airlines flight 370 that went missing last year, Malaysia's prime minister said Wednesday. "It is with a very heavy heart that I must tell you that an international team of experts has conclusively confirmed that the aircraft debris ... is indeed MH370," Prime Minister Najib Razak told reporters. Malaysian Airlines published a press release shortly after the debris was confirmed: ______________________________________________________ Malaysia...

In yet another sign we're getting closer to figuring out what happened to missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370, battered luggage has washed up on an island near where plane debris was found this week. Malaysian and Australian officials have said that it's "almost certain" the plane debris came from a Boeing 777. Flight MH370 is currently the only missing Boeing 777 in the world. It's unclear whether the suitcase that was found on Reunion Island near Madagascar in the Indian Ocean is from the missing plane, but it's a possibility considering where the suitcase washed up.

Malaysia's prime minister has confirmed that the piece of an airplane wing found on Reunion Island in the Indian Ocean last week is in fact from the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370. "Today, 515 days since the plane disappeared, it is with a heavy heart that I must tell you that an international team of experts have conclusively confirmed that the aircraft debris found on Reunion Island is indeed from MH370," Najib Razak wrote on his Facebook page. "We now have physical evidence that, as I announced on 24th March last year, flight MH370 tragically ended in the southern Indian...

(Poster's note: I searched by title and keyword and didn't find this already on FR) A pilot from New York believes he has found the wreckage of the missing Malaysia Airline Flight 370 off the coast of Thailand after searching thousands of satellite images online. Michael Hoebel, 60, spent hours trawling through the images made available to the public on a crowd-sourcing website, TomNod.com, before coming across what he believes is the doomed plane. The recreational pilot from Tonawanda said he was shocked to discover that the aircraft, which vanished two months ago, appeared to be in one piece beneath...

British woman Katherine Tee is saying she spotted what she believes is the missing Malaysian Air flight MH370 while she was sailing. She saw in early March, but is only now coming forward because she did not believe her eyes at the time. Tee said that while she and her husband Marc Horn were sailing across the Indian Ocean from India to Thailand, she spotted what looked like a plane on fire during the night of March 7. She thought she was hallucinating, but after the media coverage, she looked up the flight plan of the aircraft and discovered their...

THE $90 million search for MH370 has discovered “man made objects” almost four kilometres under the surface of the southern Indian Ocean, but they are not the missing Boeing 777. Instead the debris is thought to be from an ancient shipwreck, comprising an anchor and other items. Australian Transport Safety Bureau Operational Search Director Peter Foley said they were “obviously disappointed” the discovery was not the missing aircraft.

Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 was "highly likely" on autopilot when it ran out of fuel and crashed into the Indian Ocean, Australian researchers have said. A new search area for the missing Boeing 777 plane has been announced by the Australian government .... Deputy Prime Minister Warren Trust confirmed the search will move further south to an area 1,800km (1,100 miles) off the western coast of Australia.... An expert group has reviewed the existing information on MH370, revealing that is it probable that the plane was on autopilot when it ended its flight. Truss said it was "highly, highly likely...

'U.S. military shot down MH370 because they thought it had been hacked and was about to be used in terror attack', claims former airline boss Marc Dugain says U.S. Navy in Indian Ocean attacked the plane He claims that islanders saw the plane fly close to a U.S. base Also alleges that a spy told him to back away from his probe into MH370 A former airline boss and writer claims the U.S. downed Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 because the military feared it had been taken over by hackers and was about to be used in a 9/11-style attack. Marc...

A second senior airline industry source has revealed his belief that there is some sort of conspiracy behind the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370. As The Herald Sun reports, Emirates president and CEO Sir Tim Clark made world headlines in October when he revealed his doubts about the fate of the missing plane, which disappeared early in the morning of March 8 this year. Now a second senior airline industry source has voiced his doubts about the fate of the plane, with the even wilder claim that the Boeing 777 may have been shot down by US military personnel...

Was Flight MH370 captured by aliens? Stolen by Israeli agents? Or did it crash in Ukraine? A round-up of the best conspiracy theories LAST UPDATED AT 12:06 ON Thu 4 Dec 2014 See related:  Flight MH17: new footage shows aftermath of crash – video MH370: search for missing plane could be over by May The mystery of flight MH370: 7 other planes that vanished In the ongoing absence of firm evidence about the fate of missing flight MH370, the world's conspiracy theorists have weighed in with explanations of their own for the disappearance of the Malaysia Airways plane.The susbsequent...

The search for a missing Malaysia Airlines MASM.KL jetliner suffered a further setback on Thursday after Australian officials said wreckage from the aircraft was not on the seabed in the area they had identified.... The search was narrowed last month after a series of acoustic pings thought to be from the plane's black box recorders were heard near where analysis of satellite data put its last location, some 1,600 km (1,000 miles) off the northwest coast of Australia. "The Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) has advised that the search in the vicinity of the acoustic detections can now be considered...

(CNN) -- The four acoustic pings at the center of the search for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 for the past seven weeks are no longer believed to have come from the plane's black boxes, a U.S. Navy official told CNN. The acknowledgment came Wednesday as searchers wrapped up the first phase of their effort, having scanned 329 square miles of southern Indian Ocean floor without finding any wreckage from the Boeing 777-200.

The four acoustic pings at the center of the search for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 for the past seven weeks are no longer believed to have come from the plane's black boxes, a U.S. Navy official told CNN. The acknowledgment came Wednesday as searchers wrapped up the first phase of their effort, having scanned 329 square miles of southern Indian Ocean floor without finding any wreckage from the Boeing 777-200. Authorities now almost universally believe the pings did not come from the onboard data or cockpit voice recorders, but instead came from some other man-made source unrelated to the jetliner...