France steps up search for MH370 plane debris

Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak announced Thursday that verification has confirmed that the flaperon belongs to MH370. “It has to be verified by the French authorities”, he said.

He said Malaysia will leave it to experts to advise on whether the search area needed to be revised.

“There are a lot of things on the beaches”, the source said.

Some anguished family members nevertheless said any concrete proof of the plane’s fate would help bring closure. “Our records show that it’s the same as MH370”. They are the one in charge of the investigation. They come to our houses and stop us from giving interviews. For example, I received a pair of flip-flops yesterday.

Liow said a Malaysian team found the objects, including a window and some aluminum foil, but an aide to the minister later said it was “window material” rather than a window that was recovered.

To that end, a group of about 50 relatives are demanding to meet with Malaysian government officials, as they have only had meetings with officials from Malaysia Airlines, who are as beholden to news from the government as the relatives themselves.

Malaysia today said the reason why it is confident that a piece of wreckage found on Reunion island belonged to the missing MH370 is based on a maintenance seal on the flaperon.

Many next of kin are unconvinced that the wreckage is from MH370 and believe instead that the plane is embroiled in a “political conspiracy”.

However within hours of his announcement, a French prosecutor said that while the washed up piece could be from flight MH370, the finding still needed confirmation.

The statement by Najib would appear to give the first strong physical evidence of a crash, which could put to rest several theories that many relatives have refused to rule out, including that the plane and its passengers were hijacked and intact in some still-unknown location.

“Malaysia, find the passengers”, the protesters chanted.

The previous day Mr Liow had said live on Malaysian state television that “an global team of experts has conclusively confirmed” the wing fragment discovered last week was from MH370.

Investigators believe that someone may have deliberately switched off the aircraft’s transponder, diverted it off course over the Indian Ocean and deliberately crashed into the sea.

DW: Why are the Australian authorities convinced that the defined area in southern Indian Ocean in the most likely resting place of the plane despite the fact that no debris has yet to be found in that area?

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.

Separately, local authorities where the first piece of debris was found said they would organise a thorough search starting Monday.