Discovery of missingplane debris fuels anger

Mr Liow, who later specified he was referring to aircraft seat cushions and windows, said it remained to be seen whether the latest items found on the island were from the MH370.

Malaysian Transport Minister Liow Tong Lai speaks during a press conference on the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 in Putrajaya, Malaysia Thursday, August 6, 2015. “Maybe if they find more debris in the coming weeks, it will be more believable”, he said.

A French search plane has lifted off for a birds-eye view of Reunion Island, seeking any more potential debris from Malaysia Airlines Flight 370.

French prosecutors used more cautious language, saying only there was a “very high probability” the wreckage came from MH370.

Paris had earlier announced that it would conduct new air, land and sea searches on and around the Indian Ocean island in hopes of finding more debris which could be linked to MH370.

However, they added that it is unclear whether the objects, which still need to be verified by French authorities, are from the Beijing bound MH370 which mysteriously vanished on March 8, 2014, with 239 people on board, CNN reported.

“Our demand is to go to Reunion island and look for ourselves”, said Hu Xiufang, who had three relatives, including her son, on the flight.

Zhang Yonglin, whose daughter was on board the plane, said: “I’m not going to back down, this is the time and I have the determination, even a gun is to my head, I won’t back down one step”.

Gerry Soejatman, a Jakarta-based aviation consultant, said people had to be realistic in their expectations and that it was lucky “that we found something at all”.

The Malaysian government has previously been accused of covering up the disaster with false reports, however PM Najib has said that investigations will continue.

“Debris such as the flaperon can only increase our understanding of the last seconds of the flight”, said Greg Waldron, Asia managing editor at industry publication Flightglobal. On Monday, Malaysia’s anti-corruption agency said that $700 million in Najib’s personal bank accounts came from donations, not from a debt-ridden state investment fund. However, they note that MH370 was the only missing Boeing 777, and it was “highly” probable the wing belonged to the doomed airliner. But we are not sure whether they are part of the missing Malaysia Airlines plane.

The renewed focus on the mystery of what happened to MH370 following discovery of the wing part comes as Malaysia’s government is struggling to deal with a scandal involving a state investment fund headed by Mr Najib. It would seem to prove correct the theory of investigators that the Boeing 777 on a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing veered off course and crashed into the southern Indian Ocean.

Oceanographers say that Indian Ocean currents could easily have carried debris counterclockwise from the search zone toward the coast of Africa in the 17 months since the plane was lost.