Report: Wing debris same as missing Malaysia plane

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[h=4]Report: Wing debris same as missing Malaysia plane[/h]Experts examined an aircraft wing tip found off the coast of Reunion Island, a French-controlled island east of Madagascar in the Indian Ocean, on Wednesday for a link to the disappearance of Malaysia Flight 370.

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Air safety investigators have a "high degree of confidence" that a photo of aircraft debris found in the Indian Ocean is of a wing component unique to the Boeing 777, the same model as the Malaysia Airlines plane that disappeared. (July 29) AP


Police and gendarmes carry a piece of debris from an unidentified aircraft found in the coastal area of Saint-Andre de la Reunion, in the east of the French Indian Ocean island of La Reunion, on July 29, 2015.(Photo: Yannick Piton, AFP/Getty Images)


Aircraft debris<span style="color: Red;">*</span>found off the coast of Reunion Island in the<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Indian Ocean appears to<span style="color: Red;">*</span>belong<span style="color: Red;">*</span>to the same type of <span style="color: Red;">*</span>plane as Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, which vanished more than a year ago, a U.S. official told<span style="color: Red;">*</span>the Associated Press on Wednesday.
Malaysian Transport Minister Liow Tiong Lai told reporters at the United Nations that he sent a team to identify the wreckage.
French aviation experts will examine an<span style="color: Red;">*</span>aircraft wing tip —<span style="color: Red;">*</span>possibly<span style="color: Red;">*</span>a flap —<span style="color: Red;">*</span>and other debris to determine whether it came from the<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Boeing 777-200ER, <span style="color: Red;">*</span>which disappeared after taking off from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on March 8, 2014, bound for Beijing with 239 people aboard. No trace of the plane<span style="color: Red;">*</span>has been<span style="color: Red;">*</span>found<span style="color: Red;">*</span>despite months of aerial and sea<span style="color: Red;">*</span>searches<span style="color: Red;">*</span>over<span style="color: Red;">*</span>thousands of<span style="color: Red;">*</span>square miles of the southern<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Indian Ocean.
Investigators have a “high degree of confidence” that a photo of the debris shows a wing component unique to the Boeing 777, said the official, who was not identified.
The official says investigators — including a Boeing air safety investigator — have identified the component as a “flaperon” from the trailing edge of a 777 wing, AP reported.
The wing section<span style="color: Red;">*</span>is about 9 feet long and has an identification number that will show what type of aircraft it is, the local newspaper,<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Journale de l'ile de la Reunion reports, quoting the transport authority in charge of the investigation.
Adjutant Christian Retournat, a member of the French Air Force in Reunion,<span style="color: Red;">*</span>confirmed the discovery of the debris, CNN reported.
"It is way too soon to say whether or not it is MH370. We just found the debris this morning in the coast of Saint Andre," Retournat said Wednesday, CNN reports.
The presence of numerous<span style="color: Red;">*</span>shells on the wing tip suggests it has been in the water for a long period.
Dozens of countries initially searched for the aircraft, but the effort gradually narrowed to a search led by Australia, in partnership with Malaysia and China.
Air-traffic controllers lost contact with the plane less than an hour after it took off. The plane’s automated maintenance equipment and its transponder, which transmits its location, each shut down by 1:21 a.m., suggesting either a mechanical problem or someone intentionally turning them off.
Radar tracking suggested the plane turned west of its scheduled northeastern path, to the western side of the Malaysian peninsula. But radar, which only reaches a couple of hundred miles off shore, lost track of the plane.
An Inmarsat satellite over the Indian Ocean heard hourly pings that investigators believe were from the plane’s automated maintenance system, like a cellphone looking for a tower. The last ping came at 8:11 a.m.
Based on estimates from the satellite and the amount of fuel the plane burned, the search is focused on a remote area of ocean the size of Pennsylvania.
The Australian Transport Safety Bureau said Wednesday that about half the area has been searched during the last year without signs of the plane.
Ships are dragging sonar equipment through the water to scan the ocean floor. Shipping containers and other debris, including the remains of a wooden ship, have been spotted, but not the airliner, according to the report.
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