The search for MH370: Confusion over new material found on Reunion Island

But Martin Dolan, chief commissioner of the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB), the agency leading the search, said that the ATSB was working on the assumption that the wing part was linked to MH370. Family members in China say they want to be taken to the island of Reunion.

France launched a hunt for more wreckage from the ill-fated MH370 plane off Reunion island on Friday in a fresh effort to shed light on one of aviation’s biggest mysteries.

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Grief has given way to anger for relatives since the plane disappeared and they have accused Malaysian authorities of ignoring their demands and withholding information.

“This… will last a week, after which we will draw our first conclusions”, Sorain said.

Malaysia Airlines issued a statement Thursday saying it had informed relatives of the 239 people who were aboard the flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing that the wing section “was indeed from Flight MH370”.

“We appreciate the French team and their support and respect their decision to continue with the verification”, Mr. Liow said, adding that Malaysian experts were convinced the flaperon was from MH370 because a seal on the part matched a maintenance record and the paint was the same color.

He also welcomed any of the families of the passengers and crew onboard the flight to come to Reunion and said that they will be looked after and accommodated.

Malaysian search teams say they’ve collected many items of plane debris. “I want the government to provide something reliable, an adequate and convincing argument to convince us because it’s been more than 500 days”, said the woman, who asked not to be identified.

Based on signals picked up by military outposts, investigators think the jetliner turned radically off-course and headed out over the Indian Ocean, where it ran out of fuel and crashed.

Representatives of manufacturer Boeing confirmed that the flaperon came from a 777 jet, he said, and Malaysia Airlines provided documentation of the missing aircraft.

Bao Lanfang, whose grandson was also on the plane, told reporters: “Everyone has been lying to us”, before collapsing on the floor and crying outside the Beijing offices of Malaysia Airlines.

Now investigators will reportedly turn their focus to the area around Reunion Island to determine if the remainder of the flight is buried somewhere beneath the Indian Ocean.

“We have decided to deploy additional aerial and maritime assets to search for potential new debris off Reunion Island“, France’s Defence Ministry said in a statement on its website.

Under current plans the search of a 60,000 square kilometre area is due to be completed early next year.