MH370: French Search Planes Deployed

“Why the hell do you have one confirm and one not?” asked Sara Weeks of Christchurch, New Zealand.

The Boeing 777 was travelling from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8, 2014, when it vanished from the radar. “Why not wait and get everybody on the same page so the families don’t need to go through this turmoil?”

The disappearance created one of the biggest mysteries in the history of aviation, sparking a colossal hunt in the Indian Ocean based on satellite data that hinted at MH370’s possible path.

“Malaysia Airlines would like to sincerely convey our deepest sorrow to the families and friends of the passengers onboard Flight MH370 on the news that the flaperon found on Reunion Island on 29 July was indeed from Flight MH370“.

China agrees with Malaysia that efforts should be made to find out the truth of what happened to the plane, and China wishes to see follow-up works to be carried out and related issues to be properly handled, Wang told reporters on the sidelines of the ongoing foreign ministers’ meetings of ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) and their dialogue partners.

And Malaysian Transport Minister Liow Tiong Lai said more objects – aircraft seat cushions and windows – had since been discovered on Reunion, but that any MH370 link “had to be verified by the French authorities”.

“In fact, given that such a long time has passed, precisely locating the black box is already too hard, Braithwaite said, but the discovery of the debris at least indicates that the search is in correct direction, and it may also dismiss those wild conspiracy theories”. “I don’t understand how the procedure can be like this”.

“People want all the answers, but look, let’s be real”.

“Now that they have confirmed it as MH370, I know my husband is no longer of this world but they just can’t leave it with this one flaperon“.

For her, Thursday’s confirmation was a simple wish come true.

Australia, which is leading the search for the plane in the southern Indian Ocean, said the discovery of the flaperon suggested they were looking in the right area. “And Malaysia is the relevant country to arrange it”.

In any case, a full confirmation of the wing part wasn’t likely to bring total closure for relatives, with the rest of the plane and the bodies still missing. Major questions remain, including why the plane went off course. “Our records show that it’s the same as MH370”, Liow said.

Chinese relatives staged a protest outside the airline’s Beijing offices.

They shouted, chanted, and knelt on the ground crying, demanding more action from Malaysia and information about their missing loved ones.

The site of the probe – jointly funded by Australia and Malaysia with a budget of more than Aus$100 million (U.S.$74 million) – is so remote that it takes the ships up to six days to reach it from the Australian port of Fremantle where they routinely refuel and restock.

“So much of our grieving process involves physicality, such as seeing the body, and that’s not present here, which makes it very hard for the families to gain closure”, she said. On Friday, an Australian government official said 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.

“My son doesn’t know yet that his dad is really gone, that he won’t be back”, she said, in tears.

Jacquita Gomes, also the wife of a flight attendant, echoed that sentiment.