MH370 debris found off Mozambique coast suggests jet exploded, experts say

A shard of wreckage, believed to be from missing jet MH370, was found on the beach

Obliterated plane wreckage found on a beach in Mozambique, believed to be part of crashed jet MH370, has led experts to suggest that the plane exploded and was not under the control of a pilot when it crashed.

The mangled triangular piece of debris is said to be part of missing Malaysian Airlines flight MH370, which reportedly crashed in the southern Indian Ocean on March 8 2014, killing 239 people.

The shard of wreckage, which is a metre wide and long, was found on the east coast of Mozambique by a South African tour operator, Jean Viljoen.

Mr Viljoen described it as "kind of almost like a triangular shape" and has handed it in to local police who are now investigating.

The wreckage is so badly damaged and mangled experts believe it proves the plane did not land softly at sea under the control of a pilot as has been assumed, but may have exploded instead.

Some theorists believe pilot Zaharie Ahmad Shah deliberately crashed the airline into the ocean, committing suicide and bringing passengers down with him in a violent crash.

But others suggest that the plane may have caught fire or suffered an explosive technical glitch after taking off from Kuala Lumpur for Beijing, with Zaharie and his co-pilot, Fariq Abdul Hamid, becoming unconscious, flying on auto-pilot until it ran out of fuel and crashed into the ocean.

The damaged nature of the wreckage, indicating an explosion, may support both theories.

The shard is the latest piece of wreckage believed to belong to the controversial plane, after several parts have been discovered recently off the African coast that are believed to have drifted 2000km from the suspected crash site at sea to south eastern Australia.

Mike Exner, a member of IG – the Independent Group tasked with investigating the aircraft's disappearance – is confident that the latest piece of wreckage does in fact belong to MH370 as it is said to resemble the tail of a Boeing 77 – the same aircraft carrier as MH370.

Mr Exner says the shard has a Boeing identification number, leaving little questions that it is from the missing jet, as no other 777s have come down in the Indian Ocean.

Australian aviation writer Ben Sandilands states the piece of wreckage puts an end to theories that the plane glided smoothly into the Indian Ocean.

He said: "Whatever part of the jet it comes from, the extensive damage carried by the piece of suspected wreckage is inconsistent with widely-promoted theories that MH370 was landed under pilot control."