A nine-foot object that appears to be part of a wing flap was found Wednesday on an island in the Indian Ocean, spurring investigators to determine whether it’s a piece from the Malaysia Airlines jet that disappeared more than a year ago. People cleaning a beach on the French island of La Runion found the piece, which France’s air safety agency, BEA, is examining, The New York Times reported.The BEA said it “is studying the information on the airplane part found in La Runion, in coordination with our Malaysian and Australian colleagues and with the judicial authorities,” adding “it is not possible at this hour to ascertain whether the part is from a B-777 and/or from MH370,” the newspaper reported. A serial number and other clues would reveal where the piece came from, and French investigators will take it to a laboratory for analysis, which could take weeks, according to the Times. The flaperon was on its way to Toulouse, France for analysis by French authorities late Thursday.
The Malaysian 777, MH370, vanished March 8, 2014, en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people on board. They’ve been presumed dead and in January, the Malaysian government pronounced it an accident. An extensive search of the southern Indian Ocean had not turned up any other clues. The disappearance prompted a range of theories from catastrophic mechanical failure to foul play.
