Malaysia says it’s seeking help from territories near the island where a suspected piece of the missing Malaysia Airlines jet was found in order to expand the search area for plane debris.
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The coastline of Reunion island in the western Indian Ocean is being scoured for more debris that could be linked to the missing aircraft.
The debris, found on Reunion on Wednesday last week, is about 2-2.5 meters long, and will be checked by experts at the military-run General Directorate of Armaments (DGA) in the Toulouse suburbs.
A new piece of debris that washed up on Reunion Island is a “domestic ladder”, not a piece of a plane, The Associated Press reported Sunday.
Barnacles encrusting the wing’s edges would be studied for clues to plot the wing’s journey through the Indian Ocean, but Tytelman said there could be other microscopic life clinging to the metal or bottled up inside that could further indicate where the wing traveled.
Bishop said Australia remained determined to locate the main debris field.
An AFP photographer saw police collect one piece of debris, measuring about 100 square centimetres (15 square inches), on the north of the island early Sunday.
But, Malaysia’s prime minster said the location where the wing part was found is “consistent with the drift analysis provided to the Malaysian investigation team”. “They are going to think any metallic object they find on the beach is from flight MH370, but there are objects all along the coast, the ocean continually throws them up”, said Jean-Yves Sambimanan, spokesman for the town of Saint-Andre where the wing debris was found.
Flight MH370 was travelling from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing in March 2014 when it vanished with 239 people on board.
“But as I said, we still need to confirm that through closer study”.
Malaysian Transport Minister Liow Tiong Lai told Reuters in Kuala Lumpur on Saturday that additional Malaysian officials were headed to Reunion to look for more debris and others would go to France.
Malaysia’s transport ministry confirmed Sunday that the flaperon has been identified as being from a 777, saying it had been verified by French authorities together with Boeing, the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board and a Malaysian team.
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Before the flaperon was discovered by beach cleaners, the search for the missing passenger plane had gone cold, despite a massive operation involving planes and ships from more than 20 countries scouring the Indian Ocean.
