MH370: France and Malaysia clash over missing plane debris

Most of MH370’s 239 passengers and crew were Chinese.

Malaysian officials said they had handed a load of aircraft debris – including window pane, cushion and aluminum materials – to French authorities for verification on whether any of it is from MH370.

According to the Associated Press, a helicopter and water vehicles will search an area 75 miles by 25 miles around the east coast of the island, where the flaperon piece was found.

Local authorities on Reunion have said they will begin a detailed search of the coastline from Monday.

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. Families aching for closure after their relatives disappeared aboard the flight vented deep frustration Thursday at differing statements from Malaysia and France over whether the finding of a plane part had been confirmed.

A Malaysian journalist said the Quran could have come from Malaysia, Indonesia or Brunei, three Muslim-majority nations in Southeast Asia, or from Mindanao, an island in the Philippines.

Malaysian Transport Minister Liow Tiong Lai said he understood relatives wanted to know what had happened to their loved ones.

Extending his sympathies towards the victims, Mr Najib said, “We now have physical evidence that, as I announced on 24th March last year, flight MH370 tragically ended in the southern 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.

Zhang Jianyi, who had a daughter and granddaughter on the plane, added: “We will all go there together”.

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. “We are accustomed to criticism from day one, but please give us credit because we are doing our best to cope with this”.

The flaperon is now being examined by experts in France for clues as to the last moments of the Malaysia Airlines aircraft that inexplicably veered off course en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, and there are hopes that Reunion may yield more debris.

Malaysia says it has conclusively confirmed the component, known as a flaperon, is from MH370 through characteristics that match Malaysia Airlines’ maintenance records for the lost Boeing 777, including a serial number and a maintenance seal. Some carried signs that said: “Malaysia hides the truth, Malaysia delays the search”. “I can only ascertain that it’s plane debris”.

However, the piece of plane wing washed up on La Reunion, sparking hopes of a breakthrough in the mysterious disappearance.