You have commented 339 times on Rantburg.

Your Name
Your e-mail (optional)
Website (optional)
My Original Nic        Pic-a-Nic        Sorry. Comments have been closed on this article.
Bold Italic Underline Strike Bullet Blockquote Small Big Link Squish Foto Photo
-Short Attention Span Theater-
Claim: Plane wreckage 'containing many skeletons and painted with the Malaysian flag is found on remote Philippine island'
2015-10-12
Or it could just be some nerologist's waiting room.
Plane wreckage containing 'many skeletons' and painted with the Malaysian flag has reportedly been found in the Philippines, prompting speculation it could be missing Flight MH370.

Police confirmed they had received reports of the discovery in thick jungle on the remote island of Sugbai in Tawi-Tawi province.

An audio technician, Jamil Omar, contacted police in Malaysia to say his aunt, Siti Kayam, had stumbled upon the wreckage while she and others were hunting for birds.

Police commissioner Jalaludin Abdul Rahman, based in neighbouring Borneo, said the woman claimed she climbed into the smashed fuselage and saw skeletons.

He said: 'Mr Jamil claimed his aunt had entered the aircraft wreckage, which had many human skeletons and bones.

'She also found a Malaysian flag measuring 70 inches long and 35 inches wide.'

According to a local media reportL 'There was a skeleton still in the pilot's seat. The pilot had his safety belt on and the communication gear attached to his head and ears.'

Speculation grew that the wreckage could belong to the missing Malaysia Airlines flight that disappeared in March last year with 239 people on board.

Police remain reserved about the report, mindful of confirmation by French authorities that part of an aircraft wing -- a flaperon -- found on the island of Reunion in the west of the Indian Ocean earlier this year had been confirmed as being from MH370.

It would be unlikely that the flaperon had been able to drift from the Philippines to Reunion, given that land -- Borneo, the Malaysian mainland and parts of Indonesia -- would be in the way.

However, police are understood to have not dismissed the possibility that the flaperon could have broken off from the aircraft after it took off in March last year to fly from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, the missing part causing the pilots problems in handling the jet.

Adding to the general mystery is the report by oil rig worker Mike McKay who told the Mail exclusively earlier this year that he stood by his observation of an 'aircraft on fire' as he stood at night on his rig off the southern tip of Vietnam.

For MH370 to have come down on remote Sugbai island, it would have had to divert from its north east course after take off and head due east towards the lower Philippines islands.

A catastrophic disaster, an explosion, a fire, or even a hijacking, could have resulted in it veering around the skies, experts have said.

Australian, Malaysian and Chinese authorities have been sharing information based on satellite signals that have resulted in an intensive search of waters south west of Australia in the southern Indian Ocean.

Despite high-tech scouring of the waters and the ocean floor, there has been no sign of the plane in that area, the only discovery confirmed as being from the aircraft being the flaperon found earlier this year on Reunion.

Whether the mystery of the plane's final resting place along with its 239 passengers and crew will be solved with the latest report of 'wreckage' is expected to be known within the next day or so.

Police in Sabah, in northern Borneo, confirmed that Mr Omar had called in at the police headquarters to personally lodge a report about the wreckage.

Mr Jamil, who produced his identity card to police, said his aunt had not been able to provide the information earlier because there were no facilities on the island.

'So my aunt came to see me,' Mr Jamil told the police.

In his official report, Mr Omar said the nephew and his friends went into the wreckage 'and found many human skeletons and bones,' a report on freemalaysiatoday.com stated.

The site added: 'There was a skeleton still in the pilot's seat. The pilot had his safety belt on and the communication gear attached to his head and ears.'

A naval task force which landed on the Philippines island reported later today that initial checks with villagers on the island had failed to confirm the report.

Captain Giovanni Bacordo, commander of Naval Task Force 61, said a team of men on a gunboat had been sent to investigate the report but could not add any new information.

'We interviewed the people at the Sugbai Island (also known as Sugbay) - the fishermen - but they have no knowledge of it,' said Captain Bacordo.

'If we are too check thoroughly it has to be a deliberate effort. It's a big island, 3.5 miles long, but we did an initial investigation with the populace,' he told Philippines media.

Further investigations are to involve Mr Omar, 46, and his his aunt.

An officer admitted that if it was a hoax call, it did not make sense that Mr Omar should have given police his name and that of his aunt.
Posted by:gorb

#8  Satellites might have seen a large thermal bloom; if any were looking.
Posted by: Sven the pelter   2015-10-12 23:18  

#7  Besides, it was night time, and nobody would have seen the flames.
Posted by: gorb   2015-10-12 23:16  

#6  Kinda short time for ALL passengers to become skeletons

It disappeared in March 2104. Nineteen months ago. A year and a half, plus a month.

Plenty of time for scavengers, bugs, and various and sundry jungle spores and molds to get at them.

Lessee if it turns out to be true, first.
Posted by: Pappy   2015-10-12 21:05  

#5  Seems plausible to me. Came down at night. Even if it caught fire would have burned out by dawn and if in a valley unlikely to be seen.
Posted by: phil_b   2015-10-12 16:19  

#4  Lots of scavengers in the jungle. I'd expect the remains to be scattered about by the larger ones, but maybe it was just beetles and flies doing the cleaning.
Posted by: Rob Crawford   2015-10-12 14:19  

#3  Depends on weather the 'skeletons' were still 'runny' or not perhaps?

Or an error in translation.
Posted by: CrazyFool   2015-10-12 14:01  

#2  Kinda short time for ALL passengers to become skeletons, I call bullshit.
Posted by: Redneck Jim   2015-10-12 13:02  

#1  neurologist's . . . .
Posted by: gorb   2015-10-12 12:26  

00:00