French investigators have confirmed the wing flaperon found on Reunion Island belongs to missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370.
While Malaysia Prime Minister Najib Razak said on August 6 an international team of experts had “conclusively confirmed” the wing flaperon that washed up on the beach at Reunion Island did belong to the Boeing 777-200ER that operated MH370, 9M-MRO, French authorities were waiting on further analysis before reaching a similar conclusion.
On Thursday (European time), French authorities in Paris said maintenance records showed serial numbers found inside the flaperon matched up with the missing 777, which disappeared enroute from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8 2014 with 239 people on board.
“It is now possible to state with certainty that the flaperon found on July 29, 2015 corresponds to the flight MH370,” the Paris public prosecutor’s office said in a statement.
The search for the missing aircraft, which is being coordinated by the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB), has so far covered more than 60,000 square kilometres of the Indian Ocean off the coast of Western Australia.
