From The Australian

A senior Malaysian official says that an object found in Reunion has been confirmed as “a domestic ladder” and is not a plane part, amid media reports that a new piece of plane debris was found on the island.

Malaysian Director General of Civil Aviation Azharuddin Abdul Rahman said tonight that a piece of debris found on a beach near the town of Saint-Denis on Sunday morning had nothing to do with the investigation involving the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370.

Rahman said “I’m the one leading the investigation in France for the analysis of the (wing flap) piece brought back. I read all over media it (the new debris) was part of a door. But I checked with the Civil Aviation Authority, and people on the ground in Reunion, and it was just a domestic ladder.”

Malaysia yesterday urged authorities in the region to be on alert for wreckage washing up on their shores.

Reunion locals have been combing the shores since a Boeing 777 wing part was found last Wednesday, sparking speculation that it may be the first tangible evidence that the Malaysia Airlines plane crashed into the Indian Ocean.

An AFP photographer saw police collect a mangled piece of metal inscribed with two Chinese characters and attached to what appears to be a leather-covered handle.

The debris, measuring about 100 square centimetres, was placed into an iron case.

Also on Sunday morning it was reported that a man handed police a piece of debris measuring 70 centimetres, guessing it was part of a plane door.

Malaysian Transport Minister Liow Tiong Lai said civil aviation authorities have asked their Indian Ocean counterparts to lookout for further debris.

He also confirmed that the wing part found Wednesday on the French island had been “officially identified” as from a Boeing 777 — making it virtually certain that it was from missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370.

Flight MH370 is the only Boeing 777 to ever be lost at sea.

A spokesman for Australia’s Transport and Infrastructure Minister Warren Truss said more “objects are being brought to local stations but nothing ‘obvious’ so far. And no door.”

While the wing part — known as a flaperon —has been sent to France for further analysis, locals on La Reunion are scouring the beach for more debris, in what a French source close to the investigation likened to a “treasure hunt”.

The discovery follows a gruelling 16-month search that has yielded no evidence of what happened to the plane that disappeared on March 8, 2014, en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people on board.

The flight’s mysterious disappearance has given rise to a myriad conspiracy theories, with speculation focused primarily on a possible mechanical or structural failure, a hijacking or terror plot, or rogue pilot action.

Scientists say it’s plausible that ocean currents carried the wreckage as far as La Reunion.

Malaysia’s deputy transport minister Abdul Aziz Kaprawi told AFP that the Boeing 777 wing part “could be the convincing evidence that MH370 went down in the Indian Ocean.”

The flaperon will be examined in a lab near the French city of Toulouse that specialises in plane crash investigations.

Four Malaysian officials are in Paris with officials from Malaysia Airlines for a meeting on Monday with three French magistrates and an official from France’s civil aviation investigating authority BEA.

Mr Truss has warned that even if the debris is confirmed to come from MH370 it is unlikely to completely clear up one of aviation’s greatest puzzles, unless the black box is found.

Australian search authorities leading the hunt for the aircraft some 4,000km from Reunion are confident the main debris field is in the current search area.

The discovery has been yet another painful twist for the families of the victims.

Cordon for MH370 part

Media reporters were barred tonight from a French defence site in Balma in south-western France, to where a piece of plane wing that could be from Flight MH370 was taken.

Analysis of aircraft debris found washed up on a remote island in the Indian Ocean will begin on Wednesday, and the discovery has brought fresh hope of a potential breakthrough in the search for the missing Malaysia Airlines flight.

French authorities have imposed extraordinary secrecy over the two-metre-long piece of wing, putting it under police protection in the hours before it left the island of Reunion en route to the French military site.

Reporters were being kept outside the facility, where French aviation experts will try to establish whether wreckage was part of the Boeing 777 which disappeared March 8, 2014, with 239 people on board.

Wrapped and loaded as cargo, the fragment was transported to the military aviation laboratory east of Toulouse.

Air safety investigators, including one from Boeing, had identified the component as a flaperon from the trailing edge of a Boeing 777 wing, a US official said. The official wasn’t authorised to be publicly identified.

MH370 families lash red herrings

Flight 370, which disappeared March 8, 2014, with 239 people on board, is the only missing 777.

Under a microscope and expert eyes, the wing fragment that washed up on the beach of the volcanic island could yield clues not just to its path through the Indian Ocean, but also to what happened to the airplane.

Analysts at the French aviation laboratory hope to glean details from metal stress to see what caused the flap to break off, spot explosive or other chemical traces, and study the sea life that made its home on the wing to pinpoint where it came from.

Even if the piece is confirmed to be the first confirmed wreckage from Flight 370, there’s no guarantee that investigators can find the plane’s vital black box recorders or other debris. A multinational search effort has so far come up empty.

Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop has described the discovery of the wing part, found earlier this week on a beach on the island, as a positive sign for the hundreds of grieving families who may soon be provided with answers.

If the wing part is confirmed as being from flight MH370, it will be the first breakthrough in the search for the plane, which vanished almost 17 months ago en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people on board.

“In a sense, this is the first positive sign that we have located part of that plane,” Ms Bishop told Channel Seven on Saturday.

The families deserved answers, she said.

Malaysia’s deputy transport minister Abdul Aziz Kaprawi said authorities were now closer to solving the mystery of MH370. “This could be the convincing evidence that MH370 went down in the Indian Ocean,” he said.

Parts of a suitcase discovered nearby will also be analysed. Authorities are less convinced, however, that the suitcase is related to the missing aircraft, Australia’s Transport Minister Warren Truss said on Friday.

Boeing said in a statement on Friday that it would send a technical team to France to study the plane debris at the request of civil aviation authorities.

“Our goal, along with the entire global aviation industry, continues to be not only to find the airplane, but also to determine what happened — and why,” the US aerospace giant added. However, authorities have warned that one small part of the plane is unlikely to completely clear up one of aviation’s greatest puzzles.

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),” Mr Aziz said.

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 the debris was from flight MH370.

AAP/AFP

IMAGES:

Metallic debris found on a beach in Saint-Denis on the French Reunion Island in the Indian Ocean, close to where a Boeing 777 wing part was found.                                                                                       Police officers leave the scene with a container holding metallic debris found on a beach in Saint-Denis on the French Reunion Island in the Indian Ocean.

For more on this story and video go to:  http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/aviation/mh370-reunion-debris-discovery-lifts-hopes-for-missing-flight-clues/story-e6frg95x-1227465921897

Related story:
Airplane debris with possible MH370 link reportedly being sent to France for testing

By Joe DeLessio , Margaret Hartmann and Jaime Fuller From New York News

Airplane debris found off the coast of La Reunión Island in the Indian Ocean — possibly from the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 plane — is reportedly being sent to a lab in Toulouse, France, for testing. Bureau d’Enquêtes et d’Analyses, France’s accident investigation agency, will be in charge of the investigation since the wreckage was found off the coast of a French territory.

Initial reports have indicated that the debris, found earlier today on the island east of Madagascar, is a wing flap and has been in the water for a long time. Australian deputy prime minister Warren Truss said the debris is “not inconsistent with a Boeing 777,” though he cautioned that “there are other possibilities.” He added, “Clearly, we are treating this as a major lead.”

The remains of a suitcase were also reportedly found on the cost of La Reunión. Authorities don’t know where the tattered luggage came from.

Adjutant Christian Retournat said that the debris had been taken onto the island, a French department located about 380 nautical miles east of Madagascar and more than 3,800 miles from where the plane was last seen. A French TV station reported that the debris was found by workers cleaning a beach, who in turn alerted authorities. According to The Guardian, the two-meter piece found had a reference number on it, which should help officials determine whether it belonged to the Malaysia Airlines plane that disappeared on March 8 of last year. CNN spoke to a source on Thursday who are almost sure that the reference numbers on the debris showed the aircraft was a Boeing 777, although nothing has been officially confirmed yet. No other Boeing 777s are unaccounted for.

The search for MH370 has been the most expensive in the history of flight — about $150 million so far.

Jacquita Gomes, whose husband was on the plane, told the AP that she doesn’t know how to feel about the discovery. “One part of me, I want it to be true,” Gomes said, “so I can put my husband Patrick to rest. It’s been one year, I want him to be at peace.” She added, “The other part of me, I don’t want it to be true, so there is hope for good news. You know, there has been news that people are released after being kidnapped for one year, so there can always be hope for good news if this is not real.”

IMAGES:
A piece of apparent airplane debris found off Reunion Island in the Indian Ocean. Photo: Yannick Pitou/AFP/Getty Images
Picture of the suitcase found at Saint-André ! (credit : @Linfore) #ReunionIsland

For more on this story go to: http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2015/07/apparent-airplane-debris-checked-for-mh370-link.html?om_rid=AACMTw&om_mid=_BVunjiB9D-FkZS

See also updated story and video “After 500 days of mystery, MH370 answers could come soon” By Michael Pearson, Jethro Mullen and Nima Elbagir, CNN at: http://edition.cnn.com/2015/07/31/world/mh370-debris-investigation/