Despite the Malaysian confirmation, prosecutors in France stopped short of declaring they were certain the wing piece came from MH370, saying only that there was a “very strong presumption”.
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The airline told the Chinese relatives by text message it would meet them Friday morning to address and clarify communications, and that it was setting up two hotlines.
They added: “We expect and hope that there would be more objects to be found which would be able to help resolve this mystery”.
The fragment – a 6-foot-long, barnacle-encrusted wing flap – was discovered by a crew cleaning the beach on Reunion Island, a French territory in the Indian Ocean off the southern tip of Africa.
A French-led investigation team is finalising its analysis of the debris, while other experts are trying to use modelling of ocean currents to narrow down the crash site.
Who has said what about the flaperon?
Maintenance records from Malaysia Airlines have now also proven conclusively that the wing part found last week on the island belonged to missing Flight 370.
Malaysia Airlines hailed the news as a “major breakthrough”.
“We still need to know what happened”.
Begue had told Fox News last weekend that he was hoping his find would prove authentic for the sake of the grieving families of the 239 victims who have been without answers since MH370 mysteriously disappeared somewhere over the Indian Ocean on March 8, 2014. “I will have to tell him tomorrow before he goes to school”. Most of those on board were Chinese.
On Thursday, officials couched their comments about the development.
A US official familiar with the investigation said the flaperon clearly is from a Boeing 777. “The arrival of this flaperon in La Reunion is consistent with the search area we specified based on satellite information”, ATSB chief commissioner Martin Dolan said. “We suspect that the plane wreckage could be faked”.
Seat cushions and window panes have been found on the French island of Réunion, according to a Malaysian minister.
The BBC’s Hugh Schofield in Paris said Mr Mackowiak’s caution did not suggest he had doubts, but that he was exercising legal caution.
“This conclusion was reached as the technical details of the flaperon matched MAS records”, said the Transport Minister.
“We respect the view that they believe they have sufficient evidence to make a categorical statement of that nature”, he said.
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Mr Liow said differences with other countries amounted to “a choice of words”. George Burrows, the father of an Australian on board MH370, says his family is back to square one.
