A piece of a wing that washed up on an Indian Ocean island beach last week was part of the wreckage of Malaysian Airlines flight MH370, Malaysia said on Thursday, confirming the discovery of the first trace of the plane since it vanished last year.
Mystery Boeing 777 wing fragment found on Reunion Island
"Today, 515 days since the plane disappeared, it is with a heavy heart that I must tell you that an international team of experts have conclusively confirmed that the aircraft debris found on Reunion Island is indeed from MH370," Prime Minister Najib Razak said in an early morning televised address.
The announcement, by providing the first direct evidence that the plane crashed in the ocean, closes a chapter in one of the biggest mysteries in aviation history but still gives families of the 239 victims little clue as to why.
"Although they found something, you know, it’s not the end," said Jacquita Gonzales, whose husband Patrick Gomes was a flight attendant on the aircraft.
"They still need to find the whole plane and our spouses as well. We still want them back," she said.
Sara Weeks, the sister of crash victim Paul Weeks, said she was "disgusted" to have been told by a reporter who called her.
"Any time anything happens, it takes you right back to the beginning, the same feelings, same everything, but again this time it has been a week of turmoil and that's going to continue for some time," she told Australia's Fairfax Media.
The airline described the find as "a major breakthrough".
"We expect and hope that there would be more objects to be found which would be able to help resolve this mystery," it said in a statement.
The fragment of wing known as a flaperon was flown to mainland France after being found last week covered in barnacles on a beach on France's Indian Ocean island of Reunion.
Despite the Malaysian confirmation, prosecutors in France stopped short of declaring they were certain, saying only that there was a "very strong presumption".
Paris Prosecutor Serge Mackowiak said this was based on technical data supplied by both the manufacturer and airline but gave no indication that experts had discovered a serial number or unique markings that would put the link beyond doubt.
Boeing representatives confirmed that the flaperon came from a 777 jet, he said, and Malaysia Airlines provided documentation of the actual aircraft used on flight MH370.
"On this basis, it was possible for a connection to be made between the object examined by the experts and the flaperon of the Boeing 777 of MH370," Mackowiak told reporters in Paris.
He said more analysis would be carried out on Thursday, and a fragment of luggage also found in Reunion would be examined by French police as soon as possible.
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