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 Official analysis found two pieces of debris were "almost
certainly from MH370", Australian infrastructure and transport
minister Darren Chester said in a statement, referring to the Boeing
Co 777 that vanished in March 2014 with 239 people on board.
"That such debris has been found on the east coast of Africa is
consistent with drift modeling ... and further affirms our search
efforts in the southern Indian Ocean," Chester said.
The flight disappeared en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing,
creating one of the most baffling mysteries in aviation history.
Investigators believe someone may have deliberately switched off the
plane's transponder before diverting it thousands of miles off
course, out over the Indian Ocean.
A search, led by Australia and one of the most expensive ever
conducted, has focused on a 120,000-sq-km (46,330-sq-mile) band of
sea floor in the remote southern Indian Ocean.
 In 2015, French authorities said a wing part found on the Indian
Ocean island of Reunion was part of the plane.
The Mozambique debris was examined by investigators from Australia
and Malaysia, as well as specialists from Boeing, Geoscience
Australia and the Australian National University in Canberra.
'SOLVE THIS MYSTERY'
The discovery is likely to add to pressure from the public for the
search to go on beyond a mid-2016 schedule for it to be wound up.
Most of those on board were from China.
"If they don't find the plane in the area where they're searching
now, they and others need to continue to look," said U.S. adventurer
Blaine Alan Gibson, who found one of the new pieces of debris this
month on his own independent search.
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"They've got to solve this mystery. We can't give up after the
current search area is completed," Gibson added in a telephone
interview, shortly after being told by the authorities that his
discovery matched the plane.
Malaysian Transport Minister Liow Tiong Lai said the coasts of South
Africa and Mozambique should be searched and Malaysia wanted to send
a team.
"We are currently awaiting approval from the South African
authorities," Liow said. "The coastal search will be by a Malaysian
team and focused around South Africa and Mozambique."
Liow, however, said the location of the underwater search need not
be changed.
The piece of debris that Gibson found is a white, meter-long chunk
of metal with "No Step" printed on it.
It arrived in Australia for testing this week, along with another
piece of debris found in Mozambique soon after.
"I can't use the word happy to describe how I feel, because that
means that the plane crashed, and that the plane crashed in a
forceful impact," Gibson said.
"I'd use the word 'hopeful'."
(Additinal reporting by Matt Siegel in SYDNEY and Rozanna Latiff in
KUALA LUMPUR; Editing by Robert Birsel)
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