‘Someone spreading a story’: Philippines dismisses reports MH370 wreckage found on remote island

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Plane debris found on the Indian Ocean island of Reunion was found to be part of missing flight MH370 - a factor that would have cast serious doubt on the supposed Philippines link. Photo: TNS

Published: 2:15pm, 13 Oct 2015Updated: 5:46pm, 13 Oct 2015

Philippine authorities insisted Tuesday a Malaysian Airlines jet that went missing last year had not crashed onto a remote Filipino island, after a man’s claims that wreckage had been found there made headlines.

The precise fate of Flight MH370, which went missing in March last year with 239 people on board, remains a mystery, and the latest reports appeared to be yet another false lead based on no evidence.

While a wing part from the jet was found washed up on a beach in the Indian Ocean in July, the rest of the plane has yet to be found.

Malaysian media reported at the weekend that a Filipino man told Malaysian police that his relatives had found wreckage of a plane, with skeletons inside, in the jungles of the Philippines’ remote Tawi-Tawi island chain.

Despite the report appearing to have little credibility, some media in Britain, the United States, Singapore and elsewhere picked it up, saying wreckage of a plane had been found on the island and it could be from MH370.

The plane's voice and data recorders hold the key to why it veered off course while on a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. Until they are located and decoded, there is no possibility of answering vital questions to why it crashed. Photo: Reuters