Possible Wreckage from Flight 370 Found off Western Australian Coast

The missing Malaysia Airlines 777-200ER at Charles de Gaulle Airport in 2011

Australian authorities reported that an “object of interest” has washed ashore on the coast of Western Australia and that it is being examined to determine if it is from the missing Malaysia Airlines jetliner.

The Joint Agency Coordination Centre announced the discovery and said that the

Australian Transport Safety Bureau is studying photographs of the material, reported to be a piece of sheet metal with rivets.

The ATSB said it has provided Malaysian authorities with copies of the photograph.  Martin Dolan, the ATSB’s chief commissioner, downplayed the possible significance of the find.

“It’s sufficiently interesting for us to take a look at the photographs,” he told CNN, adding “the more we look at it, the less excited we get.”

In the interim period, police in the area have “secured the material.”

At a news conference Wednesday, Hishammuddin Hussein, Malaysia’s acting transport minister, said his country has not received any photos from Australia, adding that, up until this point, all of the objects found in the search have not been from Flight 370.