Boeing team to analyse plane debris found on Reunion Island

Aviation investigators still have to make a definitive judgment on whether the item, which appears to be a wing component, is from the Malaysian jetliner that disappeared almost 17 months ago with 239 people aboard.

If it is confirmed, the piece of wreckage would be the first bit of physical evidence recovered from MH370.

If it’s part of the plane, is it more likely the main section will be found?

The wing component bears the part number “657BB”, according to photos of the debris. Investigators will also look for any attached barnacles, which could provide insight into those waters the debris had passed through. It is lightweight and has sealed chambers, making it buoyant.

Boeing Co said on Friday it will dispatch a team to assist in analysing plane debris found on Reunion Island in the Indian Ocean.

“Australia’s priority and our responsibility is to do whatever we canto locate the last resting place of the aircraft”, Deputy Prime Minister Warren Truss told a press conference in Sydney.

Teams in Reunion have continued to search the stretch of coast where the debris was found.

The wreckage is expected to arrive in Paris early on Saturday and then be taken to a special facility in the city of Toulouse.

“However… the fact that wreckage is on Reunion Island or in the Madagascar area is consistent with some of the modelling we’ve done in relation to current movements and our predictions as to where wreckage from MH370 could make land fall if any of it was moving with the currents”.

It’s unclear when the identification process will be completed and its results announced.

Investigators have found what may be a maintenance number on the wing piece, which may help investigators figure out what plane it belongs to, Truss said.

The piece usually contains markings or part numbers that should allow it to be traced to an individual aircraft, the person familiar with the matter said.

“There’s a lot of forensic evidence” lurking in the wreckage, former airline captain John Cox told Reuters.

National carrier Malaysia Airlines was operating a Boeing 777 when the ill-fated flight disappeared in March last year en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, creating one of the most baffling mysteries in aviation history.

Investigators believe someone deliberately switched off MH370’s transponder before diverting it thousands of miles off course. U.S. investigators are examining a photo of the debris. Analysts determined that, absent any other evidence, it’s most likely someone in the cockpit deliberately moved the aircraft to specific waypoints, crossing Indonesian territory and eventually toward the south Indian Ocean.

The airliner’s crew has been the focus of attention since the mysterious disappearance, but no proof has emerged indicating they intended to destroy the plane.

“We have had many false alarms before, but for the sake of the families who have lost loved ones, and suffered such heartbreaking uncertainty, I pray that we will find out the truth so that they may have closure and peace”, Prime Minister Najib Razak said in a statement.

The suitcase was discovered near the same spot where the wing debris washed ashore.

“We want 100 percent confidence”, they wrote.

“We admit, we still do hope that one day they’ll come back”, said Maira Elizabeth Nari, the 18-year-old daughter of Andrew Nari, the chief steward on the plane. “But if they’re not, then it’s OK”. “From what we understand so far there’s much less reason to be positive about the suitcase”, Dolan told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

The object, believed to be part of a wing, left Reunion in the Indian Ocean on a flight to Paris on Friday evening.

Boeing investigators are confident that debris found on a remote island in the Indian Ocean comes from a 777 aircraft.

Martin Dolan, who heads Australia’s search efforts, also said the operation was continuing “in the right place” in the southern part of the ocean. Some still think that the plane was intercepted, perhaps by Islamic extremists or the Central Intelligence Agency, and that their relatives could be alive, waiting to be rescued.

Mr Truss, on Friday afternoon, said authorities were now “less certain” about whether a suitcase found on the same beach is related to the plane.