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Another Potential Part of Missing Flight MH370 Found on Reunion Island

A few days after the discovery of debris that could be from doomed Flight MH370, another man said Sunday that he has potentially found more.
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A few days after the discovery of debris that could be from doomed Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370, another man said Sunday that he has possibly found more of the missing plane.

Johnny Begue — who last year turned over a barnacle-covered wing fragment he found on a beach on the Indian Ocean island of Reunion — told The Associated Press that he was jogging along the shore Thursday when he found an 8- by 15-inch object with a blue mark on it.

"I was running. After, when I stopped to rest, that's when I found the piece" lying on the stony beach several meters from the water, Begue said by telephone. "The same beach and nearly the same place."

Begue said it seemed to be made of the same lightweight material as an object that was found last week off Mozambique, which photographic analysis could have come from Flight MH370, which vanished two years ago with 239 passengers and crew on board.

Image: Johnny Begue in July 2015
Beach cleaner Johnny Begue also found a wing fragment 777 from Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 last year.

Begue immediately turned the object over to police — who he said have ignored him since then.

"It looks like the other one, but I don't know if it's part of the plane or not. Experts will say," the 49-year-old Begue said.

The gendarmerie's Territorial Air Brigade confirmed that Begue turned over the piece on Friday morning, but had no further comment.

An official in prefecture, or French state body, Michael Masseaux, said an initial examination of the part would normally be handled by the gendarmerie before deciding whether the piece should be sent to mainland France for further investigation.

The French accident investigation bureau spokeswoman, Martine Del bono, said Sunday she hadn't been informed of the find.

The location of Begue's new find is about 1,300 miles east of where adventure traveler Blaine Gibson of Seattle last week found a metal fragment that could be part of the missing Boeing 777's horizontal stabilizer.

Begue's discovery was reported as hundreds of people gathered in Kuala Lumpur to commemorate two years since Flight MH370 disappeared on March 8, 2014.

Related: MH370 Families Mark Anniversary With Concert in Malaysia

Investigators have signaled that they may soon end the search for the plane, dismaying relatives of those on board.

"They can stop the search, but where do we stop the feeling of loss?" asked Jacquita Gonzales, the wife of MH370 in-flight supervisor Patrick Gomes.

"We want them to try, if possible, to continue searching for MH370," Gonzalez said, Reuters reported.