Sydney - Australian MH370 search chiefs on
Friday played down any link between part of a bag discovered on the French
island of La Reunion and the doomed flight.
The suitcase was found on Thursday not far
from plane wreckage which fuelled speculation it may be from the missing
Malaysia Airlines plane, which vanished last year en route from Kuala Lumpur to
Beijing with 239 people on board.
But Martin Dolan, head of the Australian
Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) which is leading the hunt for the plane in the remote
southern Indian Ocean, said it appeared unlikely to be linked.
"From what we understand so far
there's much less reason to be positive about the suitcase," he told the
Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
"There's no obvious indication it's
been in the water a long time and so on.
"Obviously it has to be examined very
carefully and a proper decision made but we don't have the same level of
confidence in that as potential evidence."
Australia's Transport and Infrastructure
Minister Warren Truss, who oversees the ATSB, was equally cautious.
"In regard to the reports on the
suitcase, arrangements have been made to retrieve the suitcase from where it
was handed in to a local police station on the island and it will be assessed
by the investigators," his spokesperson said.
"In short though it may just be
rubbish and there is no attached marine life to indicate that it has been in
the water for any great length of time. But it will be examined."
The ATSB has scoured more than 50 000km2
of the southern Indian Ocean for the plane, but no physical evidence has ever
been found.
Authorities are planning to search a total
of 120 000km2.
