Suspected MH370 Debris Arrives in France for Inspection

Chunks of what was evidently parts of an aircraft were found off the coast of St. Andre on Reunion Islands in western Indian Ocean.

Investigators believe the broken wing is from Malaysian Airlines Flight 370, which went missing March 2014 with 239 people on board.

For the families of the victims, torn between wanting closure and hoping that their loved ones are somehow still alive, the discovery of the part has been yet another painful twist on an emotional rollercoaster.

Barnacles encrusting the wing’s edges would be studied for clues to plot the wing’s journey through the Indian Ocean, but Tytelman said there could be other microscopic life clinging to the metal or bottled up inside that could further indicate where the wing traveled.

He said whilst very unlikely that a piece of 777 aircraft could end up in the sea except through a catastrophic event in flight, it is not impossible that it might be a spare part that was being carried on a shipping container, for example.

Martin Dolan, the head of the Australian agency coordinating the underwater search for the plane, said he is “increasingly confident but not yet certain” that the debris is from MH370.

“In previous accidents, such as the crash of Air France Flight 447 in 2009, investigators were able to reconstruct from cabin debris how the plane impacted the Atlantic on its flight from Rio de Janeiro to Paris, aiding them in reconstructing what happened.”

A multinational search effort now focused on the southern Indian Ocean has come up empty. The official wasn’t authorized to be publicly identified.

Scanning the beach’s distinctive black volcanic sand and stones on Friday, searcher Philippe Sidam picked up a plastic bottle for laundry detergent.

“I knew instantly it was a part of an plane, however I did not understand how essential it was, that it might assist to unravel the thriller of what occurred to the Malaysian jet”, Begue advised the AP. But he described the wing part as a major lead.

The source said Boeing investigators are basing their view on photos that have been analyzed and a stenciled number that corresponds to a 777 component.

“French investigators now hold a key piece of evidence, believed to be a wing part, known as a flaperon, that could be from the missing Boeing 777″.

The fact that this piece of wreckage may have turned up on Reunion island corroborated the belief that, based on the satellite data tracked by Inmarsat, the aircraft ended up in the ocean somewhere off the Southwest coast of Australia.

If the part is linked to Flight 370, responsibility for the component would transfer to Malaysian authorities leading that probe, a spokesman for the Paris prosecutor has previously said.