[Peetwo]

PT quote: "MH370′s disappearance remains the greatest, and most contentious and frustrating of aviation mysteries." - Got that right..

Finally we get confirmation on the provenance of that flaperon...

First from the AFP via the Oz:

MH370: France confirms wing part is from missing Malaysia Airlines plane  

• by:
  
• From: AFP
  
• September 04, 2015 6:57AM
  

The flaperon found on La Reunion in July. Source: AFP

French prosecutors have confirmed that a wing part found on a remote Indian Ocean island was from ill-fated Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, a month after tests on the flaperon began.  

“It is possible today to say with certainty that the flaperon discovered on Reunion island on July 29 came from flight MH370,” Paris prosecutors said in a statement, confirming claims made by Malaysia’s Prime Minister last month.

The Boeing 777 disappeared on March 8 last year, inexplicably veering off course en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people on board, including six Australians.
The disappearance turned into one of the biggest mysteries in the history of aviation, sparking a colossal hunt in the Indian Ocean based on satellite data which hinted at MH370’s possible path.

Then at the end of July, a man on Reunion island — a French overseas territory — found the two-metre-long wing part, which was flown to France for tests by aviation experts.
Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak was quick to announce that the piece belonged to MH370, but French investigators were more cautious, saying only there was a “very high probability” it came from the plane.

In the statement on Thursday, prosecutors said investigators discovered three numbers on the wing part, and later concluded that one of the figures corresponded to the serial number of an MH370 flaperon.
AFP

And then Ben Sandilands (Planetalking) talks about the expanded but continued dilemmas of this belated confirmation:
 

Positive ID of MH370 part leaves cause, location of disaster unknown

Ben Sandilands | Sep 04, 2015 8:04AM |



Like pallbearers, police bear the flaperson off the rocky shore of La Réunion

The public prosecutor’s office in Paris has issued a statement confirming  that the wing part of a Boeing 777 that was recovered from the shores of La Réunion on 29 July comes from Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, missing since 8 March 2014.

Investigators had been examining the flaperon, part of the trailing edge of the wing of the jet in a military research laboratory near Toulouse since early in August and had declined to confirm it was from the flight that disappeared with 239 people on board on its way from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing until any possibility that was an identical part discarded  by another 777 operator had been eliminated.

The Paris prosecutor’s office said in a statement Thursday that investigators used maintenance records to match a serial number found on the wing part with the missing Boeing.

“Today it is possible to state with certainty that the flaperon discovered on Reunion July 29, 2015 corresponds to that of Flight MH370,” the prosecutor’s statement said.
Which of course leaves the cause of the flight’s disappearance and the location of the heavy wreckage unresolved.

The Malaysia directed and Australia managed search in the south Indian Ocean has so far proved unsuccessful, although very early in the saga there were satellite and aerial sightings of surface debris that might just have been from MH370.

As conditions improve with the end of winter sea conditions in the priority search area Australia intends to use more sophisticated synthetic aperture sonar and a large automated underwater vehicle resembling a large fat torpedo to check out ‘holes’ and ‘shadows’ in already searched locations where the wreckage may have evaded detection.

It will also continue to scan an expanded search zone, reaching out to a maximum extent of 120,000 square kilometres compared to an initial area half that size which despite uncertainties in satellite data and flight assumptions, is believed to contain the most likely locations for the sunk wreckage.

The confirmation that the flaperon is from MH370 is unlikely to end speculation that the jet crashed in the sea close to its point of departure, or in Vietnam, China, or other parts of the vast Indian Ocean.

Those speculations are difficult if not impossible to reconcile with signals from MH370 that indicate it flew for seven hours 39 minutes after liftoff and made it’s final incomplete contact via a satellite over the western Indian Ocean from a place where that satellite had to be almost halfway between the horizon and zenith in the sky as seen from its position.
However there are numerous and contentious issues involving the assumptions relied upon by the search directors, and also recognised in part by them, that may lead to further changes in or near the priority search areas.

MH370′s disappearance remains the greatest, and most contentious and frustrating of aviation mysteries.

Spot on Ben..


MTF...P2