Searchers scour Reunion beaches in hope of finding MH370 clues

Air safety investigators, one of them a Boeing investigator, have identified the component as a “flaperon” from the trailing edge of a Boeing 777 wing. Pic: AP.

By Asian Correspondent Staff Jul 31, 2015

Searchers were scouring the Reunion coastline Friday in hopes of finding more debris that officials hope will unlock the mystery of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370.

Philippe Sidam, head of an association that maintains the Bois Rouge beach near where the aircraft wing was found Wednesday, said the ocean currents bring all kinds of debris. He displayed a laundry bottle from Indonesia, 6,700 kilometers (4,100 miles) away, as an example.

A Malaysian team is on its way Friday to Toulouse, France, where the wing fragment will be taken for investigation. It will be analyzed in special defense facilities used for airplane testing and analysis, according to the Defense Ministry.

The sea-crusted wing part that washed up on the island in the western Indian Ocean may be the first trace of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 since it vanished nearly a year and a half ago.

(READ MORE: Flight MH370 passenger’s sister skeptical over debris find)

Malaysia’s Prime Minister Najib Razak promised to make any new information public quickly.

“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,” the statement said.

“I promise the families of those lost that whatever happens, we will not give up.

Air safety investigators — one of them a Boeing investigator — have identified the component found on the French island of Reunion as a “flaperon” from the trailing edge of a Boeing 777 wing, a U.S. official said.

The wing component may be brought to mainland France on Saturday morning for full investigation, according to the Paris prosecutor’s office.

Image via Twitter.

Spokeswoman Agnes Thibault-Lecuivre says the flight may leave the French island of Reunion on Friday night for an expected arrival Saturday in the city of Toulouse, hub to Europe’s aviation industry.

French investigators will analyze the wing part because it was found on French territory, and will cooperate with international investigators, she said.

French investigators have been carrying out their own probe into the disappearance last year of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 because there were French citizens among the missing.

A Reunion police official said the wing was found Wednesday in the Bois Rouge neighborhood of the small town of Saint Andre, and was transferred Thursday to the civil aviation authority’s offices at the airport in the island’s capital, Saint-Denis. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

France’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement Thursday that the origin of the wing part remains unclear, and that the French justice system currently has responsibility for it and will cooperate with international authorities investigating last year’s disappearance of MH370.

A French law enforcement helicopter scoured the waters around Reunion Thursday in hopes of spotting more debris like the piece of aircraft wing found on the island in the western Indian Ocean.

A French law enforcement helicopter flies over the beach in Saint-Andre, Reunion Island, in the hope of finding more plane debris, Thursday. Pic: AP.

A police official who was not authorized to speak about the search on the record said the goal is to “check if there are other pieces of the plane that would have been stranded on the shore.”

David Ferreira, an oceanographer at the University of Reading, said the strong currents of the Indian Ocean could conceivably have pushed debris from Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 several thousand kilometers from the area where it was believed to have gone down.

“On its own, this piece of debris will not do much to narrow down the search area by very much,” Ferreira said.

You can watch footage of the debris find here: