Debris brings MH370 mystery ´closer´ than ever to answers

By
AFP
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Debris brings MH370 mystery ´closer´ than ever to answers
SAINT-ANDRÉ : -Plane debris that washed up on an Indian Ocean island is from a Boeing 777, Malaysian authorities said Friday, making it almost certainly the first piece of wreckage recovered from missing flight MH370.

If confirmed by analysis of the debris -- which was being flown to Paris on Friday night from the French island of La Reunion -- the discovery would mark the first breakthrough in a case that has baffled aviation experts for 16 months.

The Malaysia Airlines flight disappeared on March 8, 2014 en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. There were 239 people on board.

"I believe that we are moving closer to solving the mystery of MH370. This could be the convincing evidence that MH370 went down in the Indian Ocean," Malaysia´s deputy transport minister Abdul Aziz Kaprawi told AFP.

A commercial Air France flight carrying the debris was due to land at Paris´ Orly airport on Saturday morning at around 6:00 am (0400 GMT). It will be transported to Toulouse for analysis in a defence ministry laboratory.

French officials said analysis of the wing part would begin on Wednesday, along with an examination of parts of a suitcase discovered nearby.

However, authorities have warned one small piece of plane debris is unlikely to completely clear up one of aviation´s greatest puzzles.

MH370 was one of only three Boeing 777s to have been involved in major incidents, along with the downing of flight MH17 over Ukraine last year and the Asiana Airlines crash at San Francisco airport in 2013 that left three dead.

Photographs show the wing component bearing the part number "657BB".
"From the part number, it is confirmed that it is from a Boeing 777 aircraft. This information is from MAS (Malaysia Airlines)," Aziz told AFP.

Martin Dolan, chief commissioner of the Australian Transport Safety Bureau, which is leading the search for the passenger jet, said the agency was "increasingly confident that this debris is from MH370."

On La Reunion island, where a clean-up crew discovered the wreckage and the suitcase, dozens of curious locals scoured the rocky shore for other possible debris.

Members of the same clean-up association on Friday discovered a detergent bottle with Indonesian markings and a bottle of Chinese-branded mineral water, which they took to police.

Of the victims, 152 were Chinese and seven from Indonesia.
Australian officials played down the discoveries, saying items like the suitcase "may just be rubbish".