French To Expand MH370 Search Of Reunion Island

The French decision to devote additional planes, helicopters, patrol boats and personnel to the area came as Malaysia also appealed to the governments of Mauritius and Madagascar east of Reunion to help widen the search area.

Malaysia said on Thursday that a wing section found on the French Indian Ocean island definitely came from the doomed Malaysia Airline flight.

Long-suffering families of the 239 passengers have been waiting since March 8 last year for some information about the fate of the Boeing 777, which vanished en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.

Confusion has also arisen from differences between statements from French and Malaysian officials about how sure they are that the wing part found on Reunion last week is from the missing plane.

Martin Dolan, chief commissioner of the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB), said he was now “confident that we’re looking in the right area and we’ll find the aircraft there”.

Briefings about the search efforts and what was known were chaotic.

“Experts examining the debris have not completely ascertained that the wing part is of MH370”.

Family members of people who were on board the Malaysia Airlines plane staged an anguished demonstration Friday morning in Beijing.

“This is what Malaysia always does: They confirmed one day and renew our hope, and then deny it and kill our dreams off. How could we believe them this time?”

Malaysia’s transport minister said Thursday that more debris had been found by his team on the ground at Reunion Island, including an airplane window and some aluminium foil.

Acknowledging the vast human and material costs and huge challenges posed by the ever-changing maritime conditions, the professor said that the search in the Indian Ocean must carry on, and that continuing the search for more debris in the environs of Reunion Island still has significant implications for the overall search mission.

Meanwhile, authorities in the locality where the first piece of debris from the plane was found have said they would separately organize a thorough search starting on Monday.

About two-thirds of the passengers were from China, and in the Chinese capital, Xu Jinghong said she could not understand why Malaysian and French authorities did not make their announcement together.

Dai Shuqin, the sister of one of the passengers, was among about a dozen Chinese relatives who held a demonstration outside Malaysia Airlines’ offices in Beijing.

“I don’t believe this latest information about the plane, they have been lying to us from the beginning”, said Zhang Yongli, whose daughter was on the flight. “I can not confirm that it’s from MH370”. On Friday, an Australian government official said that the paint is not a unique identifier for Flight 370; rather, it comes from a batch that Boeing used on all its planes when the missing plane was manufactured.

“We do not want to hear guarantees of 99% likelihood from certain authorities”, the Chinese families said in a statement. “We’re just getting over things and you know, the kids were starting to accept it… then this happens and they’re back to square one”.

“This answers a lot of questions actually”. “I don’t know what the Malaysian government fears, or what it’s trying to cover up”.

Wang made the call following Malaysia’s announcement that the piece of wreckage that washed up on Reunion island last week was from the missing jet.

“And even if the wreckage is really from the plane, we still need to know where the rest is”, she added.