More MH370 wreckage found? In Philippines??!!

Walt was wondering just yesterday how the search for debris from Malaysian Airlines flight MH370, which vanished in March 2014, was progressing. It seemed odd to me that only one piece should be found. Today we have a report -- just in from Channel NewsAsia! -- that parts of a plane painted with the Malaysian flag have been sighted in the southern Philippines!

A man named Jamil Omar lodged a report at the Sandakan police station, claiming that a family member discovered the wreckage in a forest at Pulau Sugbay, on the island of Tawi-Tawi, in early September.

As the map shows, Tawi-Tawi is in the far southwest of the Philippine Islands, just east of Malaysia. It lies in the opposite direction from that presumed to have been taken by MH370 when last sighted, and 1000s of miles, again in the opposite direction, from the island of Réunion, where the B-777 flaperon was found.

Mr. Omar's report also claimed human skeletal remains and a Malaysian flag were inside the plane.

While Mr. Omar's report (which also claimed human skeletal remains and a Malaysian flag were inside the claim) sounds rather fanciful, Malaysian police are looking into it. Inspector-General Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar Knacker told The Sun Daily,  "There was no photograph to support the claim, so we have asked our counterpart in the Philippines to check whether there was such wreckage."

Malaysian authorities have called on the public not to speculate on the claimed sighting until officials are able to carry out an investigation, since past reports of debris sightings have, for the most part, been inaccurate. But let's speculate anyway! [Do you speculate often? How many times? Ed.]

If it turns out that whatever Mr. Omar's family saw really is wreckage from MH370, how did debris from that ill-fated plane wind up on islands in two different oceans, 1000s of miles apart? Is it possible that bits and pieces were deliberately planted, either on Réunion or Tawi-Tawi? Who would do such a thing? And why? And where did they get the pieces in the first place? Interesting questions. Great food for speculation!