(MENAFN- The Journal Of Turkish Weekly) Malaysia's prime minister has confirmed that debris from an aircraft that washed up on a French island in the Indian Ocean belonged to missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370.
Najib Razak announced at a press conference early Thursday (late Wednesday GMT) that Wednesday's verification process in France had confirmed that the flaperon originated from the plane.
The large piece of wreckage was found July 29 on the island of Reunion east of Madagascar.
Razak had said July 30 that both the location of the debris and drift analysis provided to the Malaysian investigation team were consistent; however, he advised the public to wait for actual confirmation.
Paris's deputy prosecutor Serge Mackowiak, speaking at a press conference in the French capital, confirmed that the part belonged to MH370.
"I think we can say that as of today there is a very strong supposition that the flaperon found on the beach of La Reunion island on the 29th of July actually does belong to the Boeing 777 of MH370, which disappeared on the 8th of March 2014," Mackowiak said.
He said that Boeing confirmed that "this piece came from a Boeing 777, and representatives from Malaysian airlines communicated with us to compare the debris from the wing found to a wing from an almost identical Malaysian Airlines Boeing 777."
He said the analysis on the flaperon began on Wednesday afternoon at 15:00 local time (13:00 GMT), adding that a number of aeronautical experts conducted the examination in the presence of Malaysian authorities, aeronautical authorities, as well as Australian and Chinese representatives.
Mackowiak added that a criminal research team was also doing research on a suitcase found near the debris.
"The only aim here is to get to the truth and to make sure that all the hypotheses are checked out...These are very strong suppositions that will be confirmed by analysis, which will begin as of tomorrow," he said.
Malaysian Airlines also made an announcement early Thursday, conveying "our deepest sorrow to the families and friends of the passengers onboard Flight MH370" on the confirmed news that the flaperon originated from the plane.
Beijing-bound MH370, which vanished an hour after taking off from Kuala Lumpur International Airport on March 8 last year, was carrying 239 passengers and crew members, including 152 Chinese citizens.
Search and rescue operations have involved around 65 aircraft and 95 ships, as well as experts from 25 countries.
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