Wrapped and loaded as cargo, the fragment was being transported to the military aviation laboratory, east of Toulouse. The official wasn’t authorised to be publicly identified.
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U.S. intelligence agencies put together an assessment in the wake of the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 indicating that the plane was deliberately taken off course, as stated by a source with knowledge of the matter.
Johnny Begue, 46, who says he found the piece of aircraft debris that is being investigated, is interviewed by The Associated Press in Saint-Andre, on Reunion Island, Thursday July 30, 2015.
Officers carry the wing flap found on Reunion island.
Even if it is confirmed to be a long-awaited first clue to the disappearance of Flight 370, there’s no guarantee that investigators can still find the plane’s recorders or other remains a year and a half later. A multinational search effort has so far come up empty.
A humble beach cleaner has told of the moment he stumbled across plane wreckage on an Indian Ocean island, sparking a storm of speculation around the world that it belonged to missing flight MH370.
French authorities have imposed extraordinary secrecy over the 2-meter (6-foot) long piece of wing, putting it under police protection in the hours before it left the island of Reunion.
The wing wreckage is being analysed by French authorities, with Boeing experts called in to assist.
Not everyone is as confident this piece came from the missing plane.
Work to conclusively identify it will begin midweek, French prosecutors said.
“It’s going to be hard to say with any certainty where the source of this was”, he said.
A preliminary report from a French lab is expected to come next week.
If confirmed, the piece of wreckage would be the first bit of physical evidence recovered from MH370. It could be a maintenance number, which could help in the identification.
The part turned up this week on the shore of Reunion, an island in the western Indian Ocean, more than 2,000 miles from the search zone.
“It is really weird, it gives me the shivers”, said Begue.
“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”, said Najib.
Flaperons help to stabilize the plane, especially at low speeds such as takeoff and landing. Investigators have found a number on the part, but it is not a serial or registration number, Truss said.
It also emerged that the code 657-BB that was reportedly found on the debris matches that for a flaperon on a Boeing 777 in the manufacturer’s manual, as stated by AirLive.net.
“On its own, this piece of debris will not do much to narrow down the search area by very much”, Ferreira said.
Over the past 16 months, hopes have repeatedly been raised and then dashed that the plane, or parts of the plane, had been found. In the end, none was from Flight 370. A French aeronautics investigator familiar with the ongoing investigation agreed.
The fact that the part was found 4,200 kilometers (2,600 miles) from the current search site does not mean officials are looking in the wrong place, said Australian Transport Safety Bureau Chief Commissioner Martin Dolan, who is leading the hunt.
If debris is from missing plane, what’s next?
A French law enforcement helicopter is scouring the waters around Reunion in hopes of spotting more debris, and Malaysian authorities were headed to the island and to Toulouse.
“If this wreckage [is] from MH370, it’s an important breakthrough, particularly for families”, said Australian Deputy Prime Minister Warren Truss.
Incredible find… French police carry the debris.
“The location is consistent with the drift analysis provided to the Malaysian investigation team, which showed a route from the southern Indian Ocean to Africa”, Najib said.
It’s unclear when the identification process will be completed and its results announced.
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Flight 370 had been traveling from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, but investigators believe based on satellite data that the plane turned south into the Indian Ocean after vanishing from radar.
