The suspected MH370 debris found on a French island this month “covered in shells” is almost certain to be Malaysia’s missing Boeing 777, said sources familiar with the recovery operation.
US investigators expressed a "high degree of confidence" the large piece of flotsam was from a Boeing 777 and therefore MH370, because that is the only such aircraft which still remains unaccounted for, they said.
There were 239 passengers onboard the missing plane, which vanished on March 8, 2014 en route to Beijing from Kuala Lumpur.
Despite 17 months of intensive searches -- and conspiracy theories -- nothing has ever been found before to confirm even if the plane had actually crashed … until now.
The suspected MH370 debris includes a Boeing 777 flaperon and a large section of luggage, both of which were accidentally stumbled upon during a beach cleanup on a small French-owned island in the Indian ocean roughly 100 miles from Mauritius.
That’s over 4000 miles from where the flight first disappeared from radar. However, it still falls within an expected drift pattern, had the plane either blown up or exploded on oceanic impact at its last known location, experts confirmed.
Investigators are working to positively ID the recovered pieces now, and said more will likely come afloat in the same region, based on ocean currents.
For grieving loved ones of the passengers of the missing Malaysian flight, this week’s find is a bittersweet one though; because, while damaged airplane parts can promise to bring them long awaited closure, these also dash any hope of survivors.
Sarah Bajc is one of those who has all along privately wished MH370 had emergency-landed somewhere on a desert island, thereby merely marooning her boyfriend who could, feasibly, still be alive today.
"If it is from the plane,” she said, “then any hope that I might have had that this plane landed safely somewhere is harder to believe. My thread of hope goes away.”
Eponymous Rox
