Malaysian MH370 - Probable piece of wreckage found by tourist - CNN

Tourist who found debris was searching for MH370

By Juliet Perry, CNN

Updated 1704 GMT (0104 HKT) March 3, 2016

American tourist finds plane debris off Mozambique 01:22

Story highlights

·        Blaine Gibson chartered a boat and organized weekend trip on the coast of Mozambique

·        Gibson is self-funding a search for the plane that mysteriously disappeared two years ago

(CNN)The man who found a piece of plane wreckage off the Mozambique coast has been traveling around the Indian Ocean for a year in a quest to solve the mystery of missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370.

Blaine Gibson, a U.S. lawyer from Seattle, is spearheading a self-funded hunt for the missing plane in an exhaustive search that has taken him from the Maldives to Mauritius and Myanmar.

"I've been very involved in the search for Malaysia 370, just out of personal interest and in a private group -- not in a for-profit way or journalistic way," Gibson told CNN this week.

MH370's disappearance is one of the world's biggest aviation mysteries. The plane vanished from radar while en route from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to Beijing, with 239 people on board, on March 8, 2014.

MH370: What's next after discovery of plane wreckage?

"I went for the one-year commemoration in Kuala Lumpur and met some of the family members and families, and it inspired me to keep on looking."

He has trawled beaches, spoken to witnesses and interviewed people who have reported debris -- all in an effort to discover the truth of what happened to the ill-fated flight.

"Most experts and the official search authorities believe the plane flew south rather than north,"Gibson writes in a blog on his search. "However one year of searching the Southern Indian ocean has failed to discover any debris."

A happy accident?

However, this potential discovery -- he professes -- came on a holiday.

"Mozambique is really separate from this -- even though it's on the Indian Ocean. I didn't come here to look for the plane," he said.

"It was my 177th country to visit. I'm here as a tourist, but since I'm passionately interested in MH370, and I am on the Indian Ocean I thought, 'Why not take a boat out and ask some of the local people where stuff washed ashore from the open ocean?' "

Gibson and the owner of the boat he chartered for the weekend found the plane part washed ashore on a sandbar.

According to a U.S. official, the debris is apparently from a Boeing 777, like the missing MH370 airliner.

Others are more skeptical. Cmdr. Joao Abreu of the Mozambique Civil Aviation Authority told CNN's David McKenzie that the piece of debris might belong to a "medium-sized plane" and not a 777.

"What went through my mind when I found it is that this is something that could be part of an airplane and could be part of that airplane," Gibson told McKenzie in Mozambique.

The story of such a discovery might seem even too perfect.

"It seems so unlikely, too, but the thing is nature works in mysterious ways," Gibson said. "Why does the ocean do what it does? I don't know. Maybe this is part of that plane, maybe this is part of another. It's small and it's very light so maybe it's just from some light aircraft. It would just be so unbelievable if it actually is from 370. That's exactly what went through my mind."

The discovery was reported to officials Monday, and Gibson handed over his find to Mozambique authorities, Abreu said. The debris will be sent to Australia for examination.

MH370 relatives: 'I don't want money -- I want to pursue the truth'

Gibson said he's keen to exercise caution around the significance of his find, sharply aware of the impact it could have on victims' families.

"Anything that can help lead to the truth of what happened and get the families the answers that they long for and deserve no matter what they are, whatever the truth is, anything that leads to that, is very good and needs to be done," he said.