A fisherman in Australia has claimed that he found a large piece of missing Malaysia Airlines plane MH370 but was ignored by authorities. Kit Olver opened up to Sydney Morning Herald about the startling discovery more than nine years after the plane disappeared. MH370, with 227 passengers and 12 crew members on board disappeared on March 8, 2014, and its wreckage was not found even after an extensive search. Mr Olver told the outlet that his trawling net snagged what he believed was a wing of the commercial plane just six months after it disappeared.
He hasn’t spoken about it for years. But now, the 77-year-old wants the world to hear his story.
“It was a bloody great wing of a big jet airliner,” said Mr Olver.
“I’ve questioned myself; I’ve looked for a way out of this. I wish to Christ I’d never seen the thing… but there it is. It was a jet’s wing,” he added.
The fisherman said the wing was bigger than a private plane.
Mr Olver said the note of his trawler’s engine deepened, and its exhaust temperature rose as he tried to bring the part of the plane to the surface.
George Currie, the only other surviving member of Mr Olver’s crew present on the day of the discovery, said they experienced great discovery in pull out the wing.
“It was incredibly heavy and awkward. It stretched out the net and ripped it. It was too big to get up on the deck,” Mr Currie, now 69, told Sydney Morning Herald.
“As soon as I saw it I knew what it was. It was obviously a wing, or a big part of it, from a commercial plane. It was white, and obviously not from a military jet or a little plane,” he added.
The crew members on the trawler were forced to cut the $20,000 net after they were unable to get the plane piece onto their vessel.
Mr Over said he can still give authorities the coordinates of where he discovered the wing. He said the plane’s part came to rest at a relatively shallow depth on the floor of a sea floor.
He said the area is about 55 kilometres west of the South Australian town of Robe, describing the area as his secret trawling area for fish.