In a startling development in the ongoing mystery of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, a seasoned Australian fisherman, Kit Olver, has come forward with a claim that could potentially shed light on the fate of the missing aircraft. Olver, a retired fisherman, asserts that he encountered a significant piece of the vanished plane off the coast of South Australia, a revelation that was seemingly disregarded by authorities at the time.

MH370, carrying 227 passengers and 12 crew members, vanished on March 8, 2014, sparking the most expensive ocean search in history. Yet, despite extensive efforts, the wreckage of the aircraft remained elusive. Olver’s account, if verified, could represent a significant breakthrough in understanding what happened to the ill-fated flight.

Olver recalls that in September or October of 2014, just months after the plane’s disappearance, his deep-sea trawler hauled up what he believes to be a wing of the commercial airliner. Describing the object, he said, “It was a bloody great wing of a big jet airliner” that was larger than anything belonging to a private plane. “I’ve questioned myself; I’ve looked for a way out of this,” he told the Sydney Morning Herald. “I wish to Christ I’d never seen the thing … but there it is. It was a jet’s wing.”

George Currie, the only other surviving member of the trawler crew present during the discovery, corroborated Olver’s account. He described the wing as “incredibly heavy and awkward,” noting that it damaged their net and was too large to be hoisted onto the deck. “As soon as I saw it I knew what it was. It was obviously a wing, or a big part of it, from a commercial plane. It was white, and obviously not from a military jet or a little plane,” Currie said.

The crew, unable to retrieve the plane piece onto their vessel, was forced to cut their $20,000 net, making the day particularly memorable. Olver claims he can still provide the coordinates of where he discovered the wing, more than nine years after the incident. The discovery was made approximately 55km west of Robe, a town in South Australia, in what Olver describes as his secret trawling area for fish.

Upon returning to port, Olver says he contacted the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA), but his discovery was met with skepticism. An official reportedly dismissed his find as likely being part of a shipping container from a Russian ship in the area.

Now 77 and retired, Olver expresses a sense of duty to share his story, driven by a desire to provide closure to the families of those aboard MH370. His revelation comes after exhaustive searches in the Southern Indian Ocean, believed to be the crash site, yielded no results. A joint underwater search by Australia, Malaysia, and China, costing $200 million and spanning two years, concluded in January 2017 without finding any trace of the plane.

Olver’s account, if substantiated, could offer a crucial piece of the puzzle in one of aviation’s greatest mysteries, potentially bringing solace to the families of the 239 people who vanished with MH370.