Missing MH370: Bodies found near Bay of Bengal not from MAS flight, says Bangladesh official

PETALING JAYA: A news portal report suggesting that bodies found near the Bay of Bengal last weekend were from missing Malaysia Airlines (MAS) flight MH370 is mere speculation, a Bangladesh High Commission official here said.

The mission’s defence attaché, Air Cdre M. Abul Bashar, said his country’s navy was aware of the discovery of the bodies.

However, the bodies were of Bangladesh nationals and not from flight MH370, he said when contacted Monday.

News portal tazakhobor.com reported Sunday that fishermen and locals had found at least 20 unidentified bodies floating along the Meghna River at the mouth of the Bay of Bengal.

Pictures of the bodies taken by locals were uploaded to the site. According to the portal, it was presumed that these individuals had died several days earlier and identification was made difficult due to the bodies’ state of decomposition.

The portal also suggested that the bodies came from flight MH370.

However, the river is notorious for ferry accidents that claim a few hundred lives every year.

Bangladeshi authorities are currently working with Malaysia to locate the missing airliner, after appeals by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak to his Bangladeshi counterpart Sheikh Hasina.