Saint Andre, Reunion: Nicolas Ferrier barely gave the blue seat a second glance. As he carried out his daily patrol of the wild shores of Reunion, picking up debris from the jet black sands and giant boulders, it seemed to him like just another piece of rubbish – a bus seat, perhaps, or a hang glider’s chair.
“It wasn’t until Wednesday that it hit me what it could have been,” said Mr Ferrier, climbing off his BMX to speak to The Sunday Telegraph in the shade of a screwpine tree, overlooking the pounding surf. “It was probably part of that plane.”
Mr Ferrier spotted the seat in early May. And yesterday he told his story for the first time – up until now, no one but his wife has known about the find.
It was, he explained, washed up on the mile-long stretch of coast which he monitors near Saint Andre, on the east of the Indian Ocean island. And last week the same stretch of coast was at the centre of the world’s attention, after what is believed to be part of a Boeing 777 wing was washed ashore. Given that the only such plane to have crashed in the Southern Hemisphere is MH370 – the ill-fated flight that vanished in mysterious circumstances in March 2014 – it seems, at last, that the riddle could have been solved.
Yet Mr Ferrier had no idea of the significance of the object. Flotsam and jetsam washed up are part of his everyday life on the inhospitable beach, where nobody dares to enter the fierce waves and shark-infested waters.
“I found a couple of suitcases too, around the same time, full of things,” he said, almost in passing.
What did you do with them?
“I burnt them,” he said, pointing to the pile of ashes lying on the boulders. “That’s my job. I collect rubbish, and burn it.
“I could have found many things that belonged to the plane, and burnt them, without realising.”
01/08/15 Harriet Alexander/The Telegraph, UK
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“It wasn’t until Wednesday that it hit me what it could have been,” said Mr Ferrier, climbing off his BMX to speak to The Sunday Telegraph in the shade of a screwpine tree, overlooking the pounding surf. “It was probably part of that plane.”
Mr Ferrier spotted the seat in early May. And yesterday he told his story for the first time – up until now, no one but his wife has known about the find.
It was, he explained, washed up on the mile-long stretch of coast which he monitors near Saint Andre, on the east of the Indian Ocean island. And last week the same stretch of coast was at the centre of the world’s attention, after what is believed to be part of a Boeing 777 wing was washed ashore. Given that the only such plane to have crashed in the Southern Hemisphere is MH370 – the ill-fated flight that vanished in mysterious circumstances in March 2014 – it seems, at last, that the riddle could have been solved.
Yet Mr Ferrier had no idea of the significance of the object. Flotsam and jetsam washed up are part of his everyday life on the inhospitable beach, where nobody dares to enter the fierce waves and shark-infested waters.
“I found a couple of suitcases too, around the same time, full of things,” he said, almost in passing.
What did you do with them?
“I burnt them,” he said, pointing to the pile of ashes lying on the boulders. “That’s my job. I collect rubbish, and burn it.
“I could have found many things that belonged to the plane, and burnt them, without realising.”
01/08/15 Harriet Alexander/The Telegraph, UK
