A woman leaves a messages of support and hope for the passengers of the missing Malaysia Airlines MH370 in central Kuala Lumpur March 16, 2014. (Photo : Reuters/Damir Sagolj)
A floating object was spotted this week by an Air France pilot while piloting a flight which was approaching Reunion Island, the same location where part of a wing believed to belong to the ill -fated Malaysian Airlines Flight was found recently.
The pilot was on a flight which was on its way from Paris to Reunion Island when the pilot spotted the object at an altitude of more than 9000 ft, AFP reported.
Local French authorities have said a ship has been diverted to the said location where the floating object was spotted while a military plane is also due to take wing to assess more details regarding the object.
Malaysian Airlines Flight MH370 disappeared last year while en route to Beijing from Kuala Lumpur with more than 200 lives aboard. The disappearance of the flight sparked a major hunt and many search and rescue missions which lasted months without any clues.
In July, part of the wing believed to be from the missing flight washed ashore on Reunion Island. The washed up piece was flown to France where aviation experts carried out tests to determine that it was in fact from the ill-fated Boeing 777.
Meanwhile, the European Union is exploring plans to have mandatory flight tracking systems on airlines following the disappearance of MH370, according to Reuters.
The aviation arm of the United Nations, the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) has set Nov 2016 as the deadline for airlines to install tracking mechanisms. However, the European Commission, is expected to mandate flight tracking from take-off to landing on new aircraft from 2018.While the ICAO requires that new aircraft be able to provide position updates every 15 minutes when over remote areas and the ocean.
