France to step up search for MH370 debris

Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak said experts had “conclusively confirmed” it was from the missing plane, while a prosecutor in France said only that investigators could “very strongly presume” a connection.

Malaysia said on Thursday paint colour and a maintenance seal were matches for MH370, although French authorities have stopped short of declaring a definitive match.

Separately, local authorities where the first piece of debris was found said they would organise a thorough search starting Monday. “We have not received any official request”, he said.

“We have also found debris like window panes, aluminium foil and seat cushions”, Liow Tiong Lai told AFP.

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.

Based on MH370’s errant course and the way that communications equipment on board was disabled, investigators suspect the wide-body 777 was intentionally steered to one of the most remote regions on earth. A pair of flip-flops could belong to anyone and everyone. We still need the wreckage to prove.

At a news conference Friday, Reunion Prefect Dominique Sorain said some debris recovered in recent days “is not as obvious as the flaperon” and would require “much more complex analysis”.

A wing part, called a flaperon, washed up on the French territory of Reunion island last week, and experts believe it possible that the wreckage could have been carried there from the current search site.

“I can only ascertain that it’s plane debris”, Mr Liow said. But, again, the French have declined to say whether they believe it came from MH370, or a plane at all.

While confirming ocean-borne debris from the plane is an important threshold for many relatives, it will be hard for some to fully come to terms with the disaster without seeing the body of their loved one, said Nancy Smyth, a sociologist at University of Buffalo who focuses on psychological trauma.

“We are all in the same direction”, he told CNN.

Analysts and experts say the wing part could shed light on how the plane entered the ocean after it vanished with 239 people on board in March last year en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.

Bao Lanfang (centre), whose son, daughter-in-law and three-year-old granddaughter were aboard Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370, kneeling down in front of media before she and other family members expressed their demands to Malaysia Airlines outside its Beijing office today.

“We expect and hope that there would be more objects to be found which would be able to help resolve this mystery”.

“They’ve lied from the first day”, Wattrelos said.

“I can’t trust them”, said Wang Wing Lei, whose parents were aboard the jetliner that disappeared on March 8, 2014.

There is growing anger among families of the passengers over the seemingly conflicting reports coming out of Paris and Kuala Lumpur.