Thai air force to examine wreckage amid MH370 speculation

Wreckage will be brought to the Pak Phanang district police station for the experts to inspect it

Thailand today said the plane wreckage found on the country's southern coast will be examined by the air force to see if it is from the missing Malaysia Airlines MH370, which disappeared in 2014 with 239 people on board.

The metal wreckage, measuring two metres wide and three metres long suspected to be part of a plane, was washed ashore yesterday on the southeast coast to Bangkok, triggering speculation it could be from the missing plane.

Police official Paijit Pongkaew told Malaysian state-owned Bernama news agency that the suspected wreckage would be brought to the Pak Phanang district police station for the experts from the aviation sector and the country's air force to inspect it.

"We are in the process of contacting the relevant authorities, especially from the aviation sector and also the air force, to enable them to better inspect the suspected wreckage of the plane," he said.

Meanwhile, Malaysia's Transport Minister Liow Tiong Lai appealed to the media not to speculate on the plane wreckage, as it would put more undue pressure on the families and relatives of the missing plane passengers.

"At present there is no official word on whether the wreckage is from MH370, but the Department of Civil Aviation (DCA) has been instructed to check with their Thai counterparts," he said.

Yesterday, local villagers living off the coast of Nakhon Si Thammarat in southern Thailand, had reported the discovery of a large metal object, suspected to be part of a plane.

The MH370 plane vanished on March 8, 2014 while on a regular flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people on board.