OMG! Is That What Happened? Malaysian PM Confirms Debris Discovered On Reunion Island Is From The Missing MH370 - Chicago Tribune

Malaysia's leader says experts have determined that a wing fragment found on Reunion island is from missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 that vanished more than a year ago. The surprise discovery of the debris on a rocky beach stirred hopes and emotion among families of the missing, after a year and a half of grieving and frustration at a lack of answers, despite a wide, deep and expensive multinational search effort in the southern Indian Ocean, the China Sea and the Gulf of Thailand.

Even after it has been confirmed to be a long-awaited first clue to the disappearance of Flight 370, there's no guarantee investigators can still find the plane's recorders or other remains.

 

Air safety investigators, including one from Boeing, have identified the component found on the French island of Reunion as a "flaperon" from the trailing edge of a Boeing 777 wing, a U.S. official said. The official wasn't authorized to be publicly named. Flight 370, which disappeared March 8, 2014, with 239 people on board, is the only 777 known to be missing. The unsuccessful search for the plane has raised concerns worldwide about whether airliners should be required to transmit their locations continually via satellite, especially when flying long distances over the ocean.

 

Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott, whose country is leading the search for the plane in a remote patch of ocean far off Australia's west coast, expressed hope Friday that the part would help solve the baffling mystery that has left the families of those on board in an agonizing limbo. The confirmation could bolster the theory that the plane deviated from its path between Kuala Lumpur and Beijing and turned south into the Indian Ocean. And it would put to rest speculation that it could have traveled north or landed somewhere after being hijacked. Read Full Gist Here