Paris: A piece of debris found washed ashore on a beach in the Indian Ocean came from missing Malaysian Airlines flight MH370, the Malaysian prime minister has announced, confirming the first trace of the plane since it vanished last year with 239 people on board.
“Today, 515 days since the plane disappeared, it is with a very heavy heart that I must tell you that an international team of experts has conclusively confirmed that the aircraft debris ... is indeed MH370,” Najib Razak said on Wednesday.
Razak said he hoped the positive identification of the two-metre fragment, which was found last week on the French island of Réunion, would “lift the fog of uncertainty” for grieving relatives.
The announcement appeared to confirm what aviation experts had suspected – that the aircraft had crashed into the sea some time after it dropped off the radar screens one hour into its journey from Kuala Lumpur to the Chinese capital Beijing.
But the cause of the crash remains unknown, and the fate of MH370 remains one of aviation’s greatest mysteries.
“It’s not the end,” said Jacquita Gonzales, whose flight attendant husband Patrick Gomes, was on the flight.
“Although they found something, you know, it’s not the end. They still need to find the whole plane and our spouses as well. We still want them back,” she told Reuters.
Malaysia Airlines described the discovery 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,” the company said in a statement.
05/08/15 Kim Willsher/The Guardian
To Read the News in full at Source, Click the Headline
“Today, 515 days since the plane disappeared, it is with a very heavy heart that I must tell you that an international team of experts has conclusively confirmed that the aircraft debris ... is indeed MH370,” Najib Razak said on Wednesday.
Razak said he hoped the positive identification of the two-metre fragment, which was found last week on the French island of Réunion, would “lift the fog of uncertainty” for grieving relatives.
The announcement appeared to confirm what aviation experts had suspected – that the aircraft had crashed into the sea some time after it dropped off the radar screens one hour into its journey from Kuala Lumpur to the Chinese capital Beijing.
But the cause of the crash remains unknown, and the fate of MH370 remains one of aviation’s greatest mysteries.
“It’s not the end,” said Jacquita Gonzales, whose flight attendant husband Patrick Gomes, was on the flight.
“Although they found something, you know, it’s not the end. They still need to find the whole plane and our spouses as well. We still want them back,” she told Reuters.
Malaysia Airlines described the discovery 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,” the company said in a statement.
05/08/15 Kim Willsher/The Guardian
