Wreckage found on Reunion Island might be from missing flight MH370; debris to be flown to France for testing

(Reuters)

After months of silence and dead ends, there might finally be some information about flight MH370's disappearance.  

Wreckage discovered on Reunion, an island on the Indian Ocean, has been reported to "very likely" be from the missing MH370.

Martin Dolan, chief commissioner of the Australian transport safety bureau, said search operations are ongoing "in the right place" of the ocean.

Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 tragically disappeared in March 2014, with all 239 passengers and crew on board missing. No trace of the plane, a Boeing 777 flying from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, has been found, until now.

Reunion island is about 4,000km (2,500 miles) from the spot where MH370 is thought to have landed.

Dolan, who heads Australia's search party, told reporters that he was "increasingly confident, but not yet certain" that the wreckage is from the doomed flight.

Experts say the debris resembles a flaperon from a Boeing 777. A flaperon is a part of the wing's surface that moves, and since there have been no reports of another Boeing 777 losing a flaperon, it is possible that the debris comes from MH370.

Unfortunately, Dolan quickly pointed out that the discovery of what might be debris from the MH370 does not really tell where the plane crashed since debris would have floated away across the vast Indian Ocean. But based on the plane's signals that were detected by satellite, experts say the plane went down somewhere in the southern Indian Ocean.

Sadly, no physical evidence has ever been found and after months of searches, Malaysian authorities finally declared that everyone on board were thought to be dead.

The wreckage found on Reunion Island was consistent with a drift analysis commissioned for the investigators. The debris will reportedly be flown to Toulouse, France on Friday where they will be examined thoroughly by experts.

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