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Mozambique hotelier discusses possible Malaysian plane part

Blaine Gibson poses for a photo during an interview with the Associated Press in Maputo Mozambique Thursday March 3, 2016. Gibson who discovered an aircraft part in Mozambique that may be from missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 says he initially thought it was part of a much smaller plane. Gibson, who has been searching the region's beaches for the debris, said Thursday March 3, 2016 in an interview with that a boat operator who took him to a sandbank named Paluma called him over after seeing a piece of debris with “NO STEP” (AP Photo/Tom Bowker) Blaine Gibson poses for a photo during an interview with the Associated Press in Maputo Mozambique Thursday March 3, 2016. Gibson who discovered an aircraft part in Mozambique that may be from missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 says he initially thought it was part of a much smaller plane. Gibson, who has been searching the region's beaches for the debris, said Thursday March 3, 2016 in an interview with that a boat operator who took him to a sandbank named Paluma called him over after seeing a piece of debris with “NO STEP” (AP Photo/Tom Bowker)

By Associated Press March 4, 2016 1 min read

JOHANNESBURG (AP) – A hotel owner in Mozambique says the sandbank where a possible piece of a missing Malaysian airliner was found is in waters with treacherous currents and is not normally visited by tourists.

Tony Manna, who owns a beachfront hotel in the Mozambican town of Vilankulo, said Friday that American adventurer Blaine Gibson was a guest at Manna’s lodge when he discovered debris that could be a piece of tail section from Flight MH370, which disappeared March 8, 2014 with 239 people aboard.

Manna says in an interview with The Associated Press that he connected Gibson with a boat operator nicknamed “Junior,” who took the American to the Paluma sandbank and first spotted the debris there.

The airliner is believed to have crashed somewhere in the southern Indian Ocean.