World hopes for first clues to MH370 mystery
AFP
AFP, TOULOUSE, France: Months after flight MH370 mysteriously vanished, experts in France were to begin yesterday examining a washed-up wing part that likely belonged to the doomed plane and could provide a breakthrough in one of aviations greatest enigmas.
The Malaysia Airlines jet disappeared on March 8 last year, inexplicably veering off course en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people on board, sparking a colossal but ultimately fruitless multinational hunt for the aircraft. But last weeks discovery of a two-metre-long (almost seven-foot) wing part called a flaperon on the French Indian Ocean island of La Reunion raised fresh hopes for relatives desperate for answers. The Boeing 777 piece was taken to the southwestern French city of Toulouse, where it will undergo tests at a high-tech laboratory, where journalists from around the world were camped outside on Wednesday. The case containing the wing part will be opened in the presence of French, Malaysian and Australian experts, Boeing employees and representatives from Chinathe country that lost the most passengers.
It is as yet unclear whether their conclusions will be announced on the same day or later. Jean-Paul Troadec, the former head of Frances BEA agency that investigates air accidents, said the analysis would focus on two issueswhether the flaperon belongs to MH370 and if so, whether it can shed light on the planes final moments. He pointed for instance to the paint on the piece as a key element of the probe.
Every airline paints their planes in a certain way... and if the paint used is used by Malaysia Airlines and other companies, there may be more certainty, as other companies may not use Boeing 777s for instance, he said.
Pierre Bascary, former director of tests at the French Defence Procurement Agency, where the analysis will take place, added that the airline may have written maintenance information on the piece such as Do Not Walk. The phrase used and the way it was written also gives an idea of the origin of the plane, he said.
Australias deputy Prime Minister Warren Truss, meanwhile, said drift modelling performed by the national science agency confirmed debris could have been carried by wind and currents to La Reunion, some 4,000 kilometres (2,500 miles) from the region where MH370 was thought to have gone down. Xavier Tytelman, an expert on aviation security, told RTL radio the wing part was already widely believed to be part of MH370, and experts were looking for legal evidence.
But crucially, the debris could also yield information as to the final moments of the plane. Troadec said experts would examine the way the part detached itself from the wing. Was it in a violent impact with the sea or not? he said. This piece looks like it is in good condition, it doesnt look like the part of a plane that fell vertically in the water at 900 kilometres (600 miles) an hour. He added that experts may also look for traces of an explosion or fire.
Scientists have pointed to the barnacles attached to the flaperon, saying these could give an idea of how long the piece has been in the water, and perhaps where it has been. If it has cold-water barnacles on it that might tell them it went down further south than they think. Or if its got only tropical barnacles, that might tell them it went down further north, said Shane Ahyong, a crustacean specialist from the Australian Museum. But he said some oceanic barnacles were so widespread that pinpointing their precise origin would likely be impossible given the lack of genetic and population information about them. Troadec warned that the analysis was highly unlikely to give any clues as to why the plane mysteriously diverted off course. One should not expect miracles, he said.
For the victims loved ones, though, any tangible piece of information is likely to help them in seeking closure, according to psychologist Carole Damiani, who specialises in helping the families of people who died in disasters.
