March debris ‘almost certainly’ from MH370 as search nears end

In December last year it was announced by the Australian Federal Government that the search for the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 would end in June 2016. Back then it had already become the most expensive and extensive search operation in history, having scoured over 80,000 square kilometres of the sea bed. The costs by then had already escalated to US$70 million for the Malaysian government, and US$60 million for the Australian government.
Until the March discoveries in two separate incidents, the only previous identified debris was washed up on Reunion Island, in the Indian Ocean in July last year. The plane, a Boeing 777-200 vanished completely and without warning on March 8, 2014, with 239 passengers and crew on board while en route between Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia, and its destination, Beijing in China.
The two latest discoveries, one a part of a jet engine nacelle found on a beach at Mossel Bay, South Africa, and the other some decorative laminate found on Rodrigues Island, Mauritius, have been extensively analysed by the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) subsequent to a request from the Malaysian government. The results indicated that the items recovered were “almost certainly from the aircraft registered 9M-MRO.”
The lettering on the partial Rolls-Royce logo “did not match the original from manufacture”, but the thicker lettering was consistent with that developed and used by Malaysia Airlines. Where the piece of laminate is concerned, it was identified as coming from the interior of an aircraft cabin and that specifically its “pattern, color and texture of the laminate [were] only specified by [Malaysia Airlines] for use on [its] Boeing 747 and 777 aircraft.”
The ATSB confirmed that its report, along with the items recovered, would be passed on to the Malaysian governments investigation team, though there was no mention of whether these discoveries would see the search continue beyond June was made.