World hopes for first clues to MH370 mystery

PARIS: Technical experts in France were to begin examining on Wednesday whether a washed-up plane part belonged to missing flight MH370, raising hopes that some light may finally be shed on one of aviation’s darkest mysteries.
The Boeing 777 disappeared on March 8 last year when it inexplicably veered course en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people on board, and a colossal multinational hunt for the aircraft proved fruitless.
But last week’s discovery of a two-metre-long wing part called a flaperon on the French Indian Ocean island of La Reunion raised fresh hopes for relatives desperate for answers.
The piece has been taken the southwestern French city of Toulouse, where it will undergo the high-profile examination.
The case containing the wing part will be opened early afternoon on Wednesday, said a French source close to the case, in the presence of French and Malaysian experts, Boeing employees and representatives from China — the country that lost the most passengers.
It is as yet unclear whether their conclusions will be announced on the same day or later, added the source, who wished to remain anonymous.
Jean-Paul Troadec, the former head of France’s BEA agency that investigates 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 final moments of the plane.
He pointed for instance to the paint on the piece — which has already been confirmed as coming from a Boeing 777 plane — as a key element of the probe.