Mystery of missing flight MH370 may finally be solved

Australia, which has led a fruitless 16-month search for MH370 in the southern Indian Ocean, said the discovery of what appeared to be part of a wing, was an "important development".

Australia, which has led a fruitless 16-month search for MH370 in the southern Indian Ocean, said the discovery of what appeared to be part of a wing, was an "important development".

Published Jul 30, 2015

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Kuala Lumpur: Investigators scrambled today to study plane wreckage that washed up on a tiny Indian Ocean island, fuelling hopes that one of aviation’s greatest enigmas could finally be solved: the mystery of missing flight MH370.

The 2m-long piece of wreckage was found on the French island of La Reunion, offering up bittersweet hope of closure to the families of 239 people who disappeared in March last year on the Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777.

Australia, which has led a fruitless 16-month search for MH370 in the southern Indian Ocean, said the discovery of what appeared to be part of a wing, was an “important development”.

“No theory is being ruled out, including that it comes from a Boeing 777,” local government officials on La Reunion said.

But as local French air transport police studied the debris and experts from Malaysia headed to the scene, authorities warned against jumping to conclusions.

“Whatever wreckage is found needs to be further verified before we can further confirm whether it belongs to MH370,” Malaysian Transport Minister Liow Tiong Lai said in New York, saying he hoped for answers “as soon as possible”.

France’s civil aviation investigating authority BEA has been asked to co-ordinate an international probe into the origin of the debris, said the statement from La Reunion officials.

Flight MH370 was travelling from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing when it mysteriously turned off its route and vanished on March 8 last year.

Authorities involved in the search at sea, guided by the analysis of signals from the plane that were detected by a satellite, believe it eventually went down in the southern Indian Ocean.

But no confirmed physical evidence has ever been found and Malaysian authorities in January declared that all on board were presumed dead.

“This obviously is a very important development and if it is indeed wreckage from MH370, it starts to provide some closure for the families of the people on board,” said Australian Transport and Infrastructure Minister Warren Truss.

Malaysian Deputy Transport Minister Abdul Aziz Kaprawi also said investigators in Malaysia who examined photos of the object believed it could be a Boeing 777 flaperon, a wing component.

“It is almost certain that it is similar to that of a Boeing 777,” he said.

He said the Malaysian team headed to La Reunion included experts from its Department of Civil Aviation and Malaysia Airlines, who would be joined by representatives from Boeing, and that verification could be completed within two days.

Excitement over the discovery was tempered by suggestions it could be from planes that went down in the region before, including a SAA Boeing 747 that crashed near the island of Mauritius in 1987, killing all 159 people on board.

Malaysia Airlines said it remained “too premature for the airline to speculate (on) the origin of the flaperon”.

La Reunion lies about 4 000km from the area considered the most likely impact zone, but experts said it could have drifted there.

“From the information that we know about the oceanography and our computer modelling, it is completely consistent with the possible path of the debris originating from the current search area,” said Charitha Pattiaratchi, an oceanographer with the University of Western Australia.

For relatives of those aboard, torn between wanting closure and believing their loved ones were still somehow alive, the discovery was yet another painful turn on an emotional roller-coaster.

“It has started all over again, staring at the handphone constantly for news,” said Jacquita Gonzales, wife of Patrick Gomes, the flight’s cabin crew supervisor.

“We have mixed feelings. If this is true, at least I know I can have peace and give my husband a proper send-off. But part of us still hopes they are out there alive somewhere.”

Angry next of kin have accused Malaysia’s government of incompetence, secrecy and insensitivity toward relatives, and many have questioned the focus on the Indian Ocean, saying other possibilities were being ignored.

And Sara Weeks, sister of MH370 passenger Paul Weeks of New Zealand, said today she was happy the debris was in French hands.

“They’ve (Malaysia) just been incompetent, so at least it’s in the hands of someone else and we may get some answers a little bit quicker,” she told Fairfax New Zealand.

Speculation on the cause of the plane’s disappearance has focused primarily on a possible mechanical or structural failure, a hijacking or terror plot, or rogue pilot action.

However, nothing has emerged to substantiate any scenario, sustaining a flow of conspiracy theories, with books, documentaries and a thriving online debate positing a range of possibilities.

These include suggestions that the plane was diverted to Kazakhstan, or commandeered to be used as a “flying bomb”, headed for US military installations on the Diego Garcia atoll, and was shot down by the Americans.

The US has dismissed this. – Sapa-AFP

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