Debris Found In Reunion Island May Come From Flight MH370

Australian Transport Safety Bureau head Martin Dolan said the debris found in Reunion Island is “very likely” from the missing flight MH370. Dolan said the search efforts will continue to focus in the southern part of the Indian Ocean.

The wreckage, which is supposedly a part of the wing, will be sent to France for analysis. The Boeing 777 of Malaysia Airlines was on its way to Beijing from Kuala Lumpur before it disappeared in March of last year. The plane was carrying 239 passengers and crew members when it disappeared.

The wreckage was washed up on Wednesday on the island, which is around 4,000 kilometers from the area where authorities thought flight MH370 went down. Dolan said he was confident that the debris is part of a Boeing 777 aircraft. Aviation experts revealed that the debris was similar to a flaperon of a Boeing 777. A flaperon is one of the moving parts of the wings of a plane.

Dolan said there are no records of a Boeing 777 losing its flaperon. He added that they are confident that they will be able to cover the entire search area and locate the missing Malaysia Airlines aircraft.

Reunion Island Debris May Come From MH370 - image credit: smh.com.au

But, Dolan indicated that they may not be able to pinpoint the location of where the aircraft went down using the wreckage. He said any floating debris may have already been dispersed over the past seventeen months after the plane went down. Authorities believe the aircraft went down somewhere in the southern India Ocean basing on signals received by satellites from the plane.

After no physical evidence was discovered by search teams, Malaysian authorities declared that everyone on board the missing flight MH370 were dead. Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak and Australian officials said earlier that the location of the wreckage confirmed drift analysis given to investigators.

The wreckage is set to be sent to Toulouse for analysis. Aviation authorities in the French city have a hangar facility used in storing and studying wreckage, which was conducted when an Air France aircraft crashed in 2009as it made its way from Paris to Brazil.

A data tag containing a serial number may be found on the wreckage, which can be traced directly to the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370. If the debris does not have any tags, the manufacturer stamp can be used in tracing it.

Posted by James Fried on Friday July 31 2015, 9:32 AM EST. All trademarks acknowledged. Filed under World. Comments and Trackbacks closed. Follow responses: RSS 2.0