On the 4th, local residents found a piece of white plastic suspected to be aircraft debris on a beach in Reunion. Photo/Xinhua International Client

In the suburbs of Toulouse, France, media reporters waited outside an aviation technical analysis agency.

Xinhua News Agency

The French "Aviation Technology Center of the General Armaments Directorate" will officially launch the identification procedure on the 5th to determine whether a piece of aircraft wreckage found on the French Reunion Island in the Indian Ocean is from Malaysia Airlines MH370. At present, this piece of flaperon wreckage has been determined to belong to a Boeing 777 aircraft, which is the same model as MH370.

Aviation experts speculate that the French side can determine whether it belongs to MH370 by tracing the codes on the flaperon parts, detecting with an electron microscope, and other means. Once it is finally determined that it can be proved that MH370 has crashed, compensation for the families of the victims should be started as soon as possible.

¡õ Analysis

Electron microscope can infer the ownership of the wreckage

The "Aviation Technology Center of the General Armaments Administration" is located in Balma, a suburb of Toulouse, and is affiliated to the French Ministry of Defense. It currently has about 600 staff members. The center has an accident analysis department, which is responsible for technical investigations on aircraft crashes. It has analyzed many pieces of wreckage of the crashed French Airline AF447 passenger plane on June 1, 2009.

When talking about possible identification methods, Wang Yanan, deputy editor-in-chief of China's "Aviation Knowledge" magazine, believes that the flaperon, as an important part of the passenger plane, should have coded information on the key parts that can trace the source. He said that from the photos, it can be seen that the flaperon is sprayed with "BB670", which belongs to the maintenance code of the Boeing 777 passenger plane. The identification personnel should be able to find other identification codes on the internal parts of the flaperon to determine its source.

In addition to coding, identification personnel can also use electron microscopes in identification. Pierre Bascari, former director of the French "Aircraft Technology Center of the General Armaments Directorate", told the media that the center has an electron microscope that "can magnify 10,000 times".

Wang Yanan believes that due to the processing technology and process, there are often slight differences in the surface of passenger aircraft parts. Therefore, by observing the subtle features of the surface of the flaperon components through an electron microscope, it is possible to determine its production time, location and equipment, and then infer whether it came from the MH370 aircraft.

Too little wreckage to solve the mystery of the crash

Determining whether the flaperon came from the MH370 aircraft is only the first step. Whether it can find clues and solve the mystery of the disappearance of the aircraft is also of concern.

If it is confirmed that the flaperon came from the MH370 aircraft, the French laboratory will use more complex tools to investigate the cause of the crash, such as analyzing whether the damage to the wreckage was due to the disintegration of the aircraft in the air or the entire aircraft falling into the ocean. Some experts also suggested that by analyzing the types and sizes of "shells" attached to the flaperon, valuable information can be obtained to determine the sea area where the aircraft crashed.

However, some experts have warned that since there is only one piece of aircraft wreckage, people should not expect any amazing discoveries. Jean-Paul Troadec, former director of the French Civil Aviation Safety Investigation and Analysis Bureau, said: "We should not expect analysis to bring miracles... The possibility is very small."

Wang Yanan also predicted that it would be difficult to solve the mystery of the plane crash with only one piece of wreckage, and considering the complexity of ocean current movement and time factors, it would be very difficult to reversely locate the sea area where the plane crashed. He also suggested that if it is determined that the flaperon belongs to the MH370 aircraft, the search work near Madagascar should be strengthened. Once more aircraft wreckage is found, it is possible to obtain more clues from it.

¡õ Progress

The attached "shell" may come from the western waters of Australia

The Malaysian delegation and relevant French personnel held a closed-door meeting in Paris on the 3rd to discuss the identification of the aircraft flaperon wreckage found on the French Reunion Island. At the same time, Mauritius, an island country in the southwestern Indian Ocean, announced that the Mauritius police will search for possible wreckage of Malaysia Airlines MH370 in coastal areas.

Reporters saw that a five-member Malaysian delegation led by Azharuddin, director of the Malaysian Civil Aviation Authority, arrived at the Paris Palace of Justice in the first district of Paris on the afternoon of the 3rd and began to hold a closed-door meeting with French judges responsible for investigating the crash of Malaysia Airlines MH370, representatives of the French Civil Aviation Safety Investigation and Analysis Bureau, and representatives of the French Gendarmerie to discuss the identification of the aircraft flaperon wreckage found recently on the French Reunion Island in the Indian Ocean and coordinate the investigation. According to French media reports, members of the Malaysian delegation include representatives of Malaysia Airlines and Malaysian judicial institutions.

Hans-Georg Herbig, a geologist at the University of Cologne in Germany, found in the photos of the aircraft flaperon wreckage that the "shells" attached to the wreckage are likely to be a crustacean called "Mingheer", which lives in the colder waters of western Australia.

The Malaysian government announced on the 2nd that the flaperon previously found on the French Reunion Island has been officially identified as coming from a Boeing 777 passenger plane.

French media also reported that Mauritius, an island country in the southwestern Indian Ocean, announced on the 3rd that the Mauritius police will search for suspected wreckage of Malaysia Airlines MH370 in the coastal areas of the country. Mauritius is searching at the request of Malaysia. Malaysian Transport Minister Liow Tiong Lai issued a statement on the 2nd saying that the Malaysian Civil Aviation Authority is seeking assistance from several civil aviation agencies in countries near the French Reunion Island to search for wreckage.

Object resembling a porthole frame was found

According to local media on the French Reunion Island on the 4th, local residents found a piece of white plastic suspected to be aircraft debris on a beach near Saint-Denis, the capital of Reunion. It is currently impossible to determine whether this plastic piece is related to the previously found aircraft wreckage.

According to the local newspaper LINFO, this piece of white plastic was found on the same beach by the same person who found the suspected metal debris on the 2nd. The local police arrived immediately after receiving the alarm, took photos and collected evidence, and took the plastic away. The plastic has been handed over to the local aviation gendarmerie for safekeeping, awaiting further testing and investigation.

The reporter saw from the photos provided by the witnesses that the newly discovered plastic piece was a white frame-like object, about 30 cm square, with a rectangular hole in the middle, and all the edges and corners were curved, resembling the window frame of an airplane. There is currently no evidence to show that this object is related to the MH370 aircraft.

In addition, a piece of metal debris engraved with Chinese characters found on the beach on the 2nd has been proven to have nothing to do with the aircraft.

The local aviation gendarmerie in Reunion said that some debris and wreckage-like objects are washed up on the beach and found every day. After the first piece of wreckage was found, the gendarmerie received dozens of related alarm messages every day, but most of them were of no value.

Currently, the authorities of Reunion have refused to release any information about the salvage of debris, but have made it clear that any valuable suspicious objects found will be immediately sealed and transported to Paris for investigation and analysis by the "special investigation team". A local police source who wished to remain anonymous told reporters on the 4th that Malaysia has currently sent a four-member investigation team to conduct investigations and collect evidence on Reunion Island.

According to Xinhua International

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