[Peetwo]

As many MH370 followers would have heard there was a breaking news story overnight when a large piece of aircraft debris - resembling part of a flaperon - was discovered on a beach on Reunion island in the SW Indian Ocean, circled in red below:

 

The following is what has been reported in the Oz (on behalf of the APP) this am, plus some interesting speculative commentary so far... 
 

MH370 speculation sparked by debris found on Indian Ocean island  

• by: Jacquelin Magnay
  
• From: The Australian
  
• July 30, 2015 6:14AM
  

European Correspondent



Policemen stand next to a piece of debris from an unidentified aircraft found in the coastal area of Saint-Andre de la Reunion. Source: AFP




Police carry a piece of debris from an unidentified aircraft found in the coastal area of Saint-Andre de la Reunion. Source: AFP
Aviation officials are urgently assessing if a shell crusted wing flap discovered off the South Indian Ocean country of Reunion Island belongs to the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370.  

The large chunk of debris washed up on the west coast shoreline at St Andrew on the island, and if it is determined to be from MH370 it will help solve one of the biggest aviation mysteries of all time.

Christian Retournat, a French airforce official based on the island, told CNN: “It is way too soon to say whether or not it is MH370. We just found the debris this morning.”

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau was notified by French officials on Reunion Island late on Wednesday (AEST) of the discovery of what appears to be part of a wing.

The ATSB is working with the plane’s manufacturer, Boeing, to identify if it is from MH370.

“We’ve received some pictures of the item and we are having them assessed by the manufacturers as to what they may be,” ATSB spokesman Joe Hattley told AAP.

“The French authorities have it secured,” Hattley said of the debris. “We’ll work with the French.

“First we need to determine what the item is and whether it is part of a Boeing 777 and then if it is part of MH370.”

Key to the investigation will be serial numbers on the wreckage.
“There’s two numbers you’d be looking for,” he said.

“One is a part number.

“Similar parts on different planes would have a number.

“And you’d have a serial number, a specific number to that particular component.

“If we can locate a serial number we might be able to match it to a specific air frame.”
Locals say the piece of plane appears to have been in the water for around a year.

French aviation experts were immediately assessing the photographs of the wing flap for any connection to MH370 and early speculation is that it could be the wing of a Boeing 777, the same as MH370.

MH370 disappeared after taking off from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on March 8, 2014, bound for Beijing with 239 people aboard.

In the 18 months since there have been extensive multi national searches including the Australian-led search off the west coast of Australia that was initiated by computer analysis of “pings” emanating from the plane which appeared to change course in a dead spot of radar activity between Malaysia and Vietnam.

There have been other aircraft crashes in the area near Reunion Island, including a twin engine crash in 2006, and an A310 which crashed off the Comoros in 2009.

With agencies

Terence

2 hours ago


If it is part of the wreckage from flight MH370 then it tallies with the reports of villagers near Kuda Huvadhoo, Maldives of a low flying aircraft of the same colours as MH370 on the day that flight disappeared. And according to the ocean currents for the Indian Ocean the final destination of this piece of aircraft flotsam tallies with the current drift. 



Rick H
1 hour ago

It is absolutely from the MH370,no doubt about it.I said to my wife just after it went missing that eventually the ocean will reveal it's secrets & something would wash up months or even years later.Being ex-Air Force is another reason why I've seen this thing happen so often before.So now the search begins.



Charles
45 minutes ago

All floating wreckage from any Maldives crash would remain in the northern hemisphere and first move west within the Equatorial Counter Current and eventually turn north, then east and end up in Indonesia.

All floating wreckage from a crash off the Australian coast would move north in the West Australian Current, then west in the Southern Equatorial Current until it passed Reunion Is on it way to Madagascar where it would turn south and eventually east and go around again. There is very little northern to southern hemisphere current movement, Maldives in in the north, Reunion is in the south. If this is MH370, then it probably came from off the Australian coast.

And this is what Ben has written so far:

Wing fragment possibly from MH370 found on remote island

Ben Sandilands | Jul 30, 2015 3:20AM |


One of the Twitter photos posted on French blog Peur Avion

A waterlogged section of what may (or may not) be part of the wing of missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 has been found on La Reunion island in the southern western Indian Ocean.

All that can be said with certainty at this stage is that looks as if it came off an aircraft of some size, and is claimed to resemble a wing part called a flaperon from a Boeing 777 similar to the 777-200ER that was operating the Malaysia Airlines flight between Kuala Lumpur and Beijing that disappeared with 239 people onboard on 8 March 2014.

News and photos of the piece of wreckage first appeared on a closed pilot forum AvGeek and in French on a web site ironically called Fear of Flying, calling itself Peur Avion rather than Par Avion.

The first mainstream English media to carry the reports was The Telegraph in London, but a slightly earlier report on the UK site Metro points out that it might also be from aircraft that crashed near the French outpost of La Reunion in 2006 or even the 2009 crash of a Yemenia A310, off the coast of the Comoros.

The Australian managed Malaysia directed search for MH370  is being carried out on a vast 120,000 square kilometre section of the southern Indian Ocean sea bed well to the SW of Perth and distant from La Reunion island.

When the initial sea and air search for MH370 began off the coast of Western Australia in March last year there were unconfirmed radar satellite and surveillance aircraft sightings of debris that may have come from the missing airliner.

That initial search began at a time when any floating debris from the crash would have been substantially dispersed and likely to have sunk.

It will be interesting to watch this developing story, with wild & rational speculation, Chinese whispers, regurgitation, after regurgitation spread like wildfire across the globe - what the wash up (pun intended ) will be, again we will just have to wait & see

MTF..no doubt..P2