More aircraft debris prompts MH17 questions

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

Earlier today, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak said the debris discovered on the French Reunion Island on July 29 was confirmed to be of flight MH370.

A portion of a Boeing 777 wing was found on the beach of Reunion Island last week, but officials were slow to announce that it was from the missing Flight MH370.

The flight apparently veered out over the Indian Ocean, flying for hours after its communications and tracking systems were shut off, in what remains one of the biggest mysteries in the history of aviation.

Malaysia Airines will meet Chinese relatives of those missing on board its flight MH370, the company said Thursday in Beijing.

“If you are saying that the plane part is there, we want to see it”, said Zhang Yongli, a father of another passenger. French, Australian and U.S. authorities stopped short of full confirmation. It brings us closer to finding a closure to this mystery.

The remnants of a suitcase that were found near the flaperon on Reunion Island are being sent to a different French lab for examination, Mackowiak added.

French investigators were under the impression that no new debris had been found, a spokeswoman for Paris prosecutor’s office told the Associated Press.

Mr Hansford, who has previously said he believed the crash was the deliberate act of the pilot, said the flaperon snapping off gave pointers on how the jet entered the water.

Sara Weeks, the sister of MH370 passenger Paul Weeks of New Zealand, said the confirmation ended “a week of turmoil”.

Relatives of the 153 Chinese citizens on board the plane have complained of being left uninformed in the wake of its disappearance.

While Australia’s Joint Agency Co-ordination Centre says the discovery proves it’s searching the right area of the Indian Ocean, the airline described it as a major breakthrough and expects more objects will be found.

He said he hoped the news would end “unspeakable” uncertainty for relatives of the 239 people aboard, and the announcement was in line with the Malaysian conclusion that the plane crashed in the Indian Ocean, killing all aboard. “The second reason is that representatives from Malaysia Airlines have provided parts of the technical documentation of Boeing 777 Flight MH370, and based on this it has been possible to make a connection between the piece examined and the flap of MH370″.

A group of families from China said French investigators and Boeing must also say definitively the wing piece was from the plane.

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Malaysian officials have said the plane’s movements were consistent with deliberate actions by someone on the plane, suggesting someone in the cockpit intentionally flew the aircraft off course.