Suspected MH370 debris probe underway in France

TOULOUSE: Experts in France began examining a washed-up plane part Wednesday which likely belonged to the MH370 plane that vanished mysteriously last year, hoping to find clues to one of aviation’s 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 week’s discovery of a two-meter-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.
French and Malaysian experts including Azharuddin Abdul Rahman, the head of the Asian country’s civil aviation watchdog, arrived at a laboratory in the southern French city of Toulouse on Wednesday for the tests.
A judicial source said the examination of the wing part began shortly afterwards.
French, Malaysian and Australian experts, Boeing employees and representatives from China — the country that lost the most passengers in the disaster — were all due to be present.
A source close to the case said a full probe of the wing part would “likely take at least a few days.”
Jean-Paul Troadec, former chief of France’s BEA agency that probes air accidents, said the analysis would focus on two issues — whether the flaperon belongs to MH370 and if so, whether it can shed light on the plane’s final moments.
He said the paint on the piece was one key element of the probe.
“Every airline paints their planes in a certain way,” he said. “If the paint used is used by Malaysia Airlines... there may be more certainty.”
Pierre Bascary, former director of tests at the French Defense 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.
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.