MH370 sleuths discover ‘item of interest’ off the coast of Africa in bid to solve plane’s mystery disappearance
TWO amateur sleuths claim to have found an "item of interest"; off the coast of Africa where they believe the doomed MH370 lies at the bottom of the sea.
Duncan Heyde and Thane Kirby, from New Zealand, found the item during a trip to Mauritius, a tiny island near where wreckage has previously been found.
The pair, who work as radio presenters, were visiting the region after raising £35,000 from listeners to investigate their theory.
Malaysian Airlines Flight 370 disappeared in March 2014 while flying from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people on board.
To this day exactly how and why it vanished remains unknown - and one of the greatest unsolved mysteries of modern times.
Duncan told : "We did see an item of interest at one of the coordinates.
"It was a 2.5m wide man made looking dome white shaped object.
"We managed to go over it five or six times times but couldn't stay on it due to the testing weather conditions in the area."
The pair used the money to spend two days on the water and one in the air combing locations where they suspect the wreckage is located.
They based their search on coordinates provided by Peter McMahon, an amateur crash investigator who has spent years poring over NASA and Google Maps images.
He has always maintained the aircraft is 10 miles south of small islet Round Island - an area not included in the search operation by experts.
Duncan added: "Peter provided us with the coordinates of the location in which he believed MH370 to be resting.
"We raised the funds and set off to Mauritius to determine if Peter’s investigations into the whereabouts of the wreckage were correct.
"With all the parts washing up near Mauritius, I think it’s resting at the bottom of the ocean off the coast somewhere."
Earlier this year Malaysia's government approved US-company Ocean Infinity to dispatch a vessel to search more than 9.000 sq m of Australian waters for the missing Boeing 777.
The plane's exact location has never been known.
Debris was found by volunteers clearing a beach in St Andre, Reunion in 2015 and Australia released satellite imagery in 2017 showing 12 objects floating near the suspected crash site.
We pay for your stories! Do you have a story for The Sun Online news team? Email us at tips@the-sun.co.uk or call 0207 782 4368. You can WhatsApp us on 07810 791 502. We pay for videos too. Click here to upload yours.