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Home > News > World News > Article > After 16 months first physical clue surfaces in missing MH370 case

After 16 months, first physical clue surfaces in missing MH370 case

Updated on: 31 July,2015 03:30 AM IST  | 
Agencies |

The discovery of remains on the Indian Ocean island of Reunion has made authorities suspect it might be a part of the Malaysian Airlines Boeing 777, which was en-route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, and vanished on March 8, 2014

After 16 months, first physical clue surfaces in missing MH370 case

Experts examining the wreckage say that it looks like itu00c3u00a2u00c2u0080u00c2u0099s been in the water for around a year, which again would fit with MH370.

Kuala Lumpur/Paris: Wreckage found on the French island of Reunion in the Indian Ocean on Wednesday appears to be a part of the Malaysian Airlines flight MH370 that mysteriously disappeared on March 8, 2014.


Experts  examining the wreckage say that it looks like it’s been in the water for around a year, which again would fit with MH370. pic/AFP
Experts  examining the wreckage say that it looks like it’s been in the water for around a year, which again would fit with MH370. Pic/AFP


The piece believed to be a part of the missing MH370 is “almost certainly” from a Boeing 777 aircraft, Malaysian Deputy Transport Minister Abdul Aziz Kaprawi said.


“The flaperon is similar with that on a Boeing 777 aircraft. It’s almost certain (that it is from a Boeing 777),” the minister said.
He said the ministry, however, still could not confirm if it belonged to MH370, en-route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people onboard —227 passengers and 12 crew members — when it vanished. The Malaysian government has dispatched a team to Reunion Island to investigate the debris.

‘We need to verify’
“We have wreckage found that needs to be further verified before we can further confirm if it belongs to MH370. So we have dispatched a team to investigate on these issues and we hope that we can identify it as soon as possible,” the minister said.

Expertspeaks
Xavier Tytelman, a former military pilot who now specialises in aviation security, was contacted on Wednesday by a man living on Reunion island.

“Police in Reunion examining the wreckage say that it looks like it’s been in the water for around a year, which again would fit with MH370. We can’t say for certainty, but we do think there is a chance that this is it,” he added.

If the wreckage really belongs to MH370, then it is way far from where it was last spotted, near the southern tip of Vietnam-roughly 3,800 miles away.

Incidentally , a member of a local shore cleaning association in Saint-Andre, French Indian Ocean island of La Reunion, also found remains of a suitcase on the same site where the plane wreckage was discovered a day before.

The piece of wreckage is believed to be the first physical clue in the missing airline case.

3,800miles
Distance of the spot where ruins were found to the site where MH370 was last seen

239
Number of people onboard, including 227 passengers and 12 crew members

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