Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak confirmed on Wednesday that the piece of wing found washed ashore on Reunion Island did come from Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370. The Boeing 777 disappeared on March 8, 2014, after diverting from its intended flight path between Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 passengers and crew on board.
An environmental worker found the ill-fated Boeing’s 777 flaperon on a beach in the town of Saint Andre on July 29. French authorities transported the debris over the weekend to an aeronautical laboratory in Toulouse, France, where a team of experts gathered this week to attempt to identify its source.
Located east of Madagascar, Reunion lies thousands of miles west of the current search zone in the southern Indian Ocean, west of Australia. But oceanographers believe ocean currents could have carried the debris that distance.
The conclusion that the flaperon came from MH370 supports the contention, based on radar and satellite data, that MH370 “turned back” from its flight path over the South China Sea and crossed the Malaysian peninsula on a westerly course. The loss of the aircraft led the International Aviation Safety Organization to require that airlines track their aircraft at regular intervals using available technology.
Malaysia has officially declared the disappearance of MH370 an accident and leads the investigation of its cause. Boeing, France’s BEA aviation accident investigation authority, the Australian Transport Safety Bureau and the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board also participate.