'Premature' to relate found debris with Boeing 777: Mozambique

Mozambican aviation authorities on Wednesday confirmed the finding of a piece of an airplane off the coast of Mozambique, but considered it "premature" to relate it with a Boeing 777 aircraft.

"Up to now, there is no evidence showing that it is explicitly or implicitly a part of MH370," Xinhua quoted Joao Abreu, the director of National Civil Aviation Institute of Mozambique, as saying.

Abreu told media that it is a composite material called honeycomb, used in aircraft structures, adding that the finding piece will now be submitted to expert analysis under normal procedures.

He said that Australian authorities responsible for the investigation of the disappearance of the Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 has already been in contact with his institute.

The piece was found two days ago by local fishermen accompanying an American tourist along the coast of Vilanculos, Inhambane province, and delivered this afternoon to the institute in Maputo, said Abreu.

Flight MH370, a Boeing 777-200ER, disappeared on March 8, 2014, en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, with a total of 239 passengers on board.

Joint search efforts in the Southern Indian Ocean, where the flight was presumably had ended its journey, has yielded no concrete results so far.