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August 3, 2015

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‘Treasure hunt mentality’ taking over, says investigation source

Source: AFP | August 3, 2015, Monday | Print Edition

A HUNT for more wreckage from missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 on the French island of Reunion turned up no new clues yesterday after authorities said metallic debris found by locals did not come from an airplane.

However, Malaysia urged authorities in the Indian Ocean region to be on the lookout for debris washing up on their shores as hopes rose that a piece of a Boeing 777 wing could help solve one of aviation’s greatest mysteries.

Islanders on Reunion have been combing the shores since the wing part was found last Wednesday, handing over bits of what they believe to be wreckage to police. Yesterday morning, several pieces of debris sparked excitement, one of which was thought to be from a plane door.

However, investigators quickly shot down these hopes. Malaysia’s Director General of Civil Aviation Azharuddin Abdul Rahman, who is in France for an analysis of the wing part, told reporters that one item “was actually from a domestic ladder. It is not a door.”

A source close to the investigation said “no object or debris likely to come from a plane” had been placed into evidence yesterday.

Police collected a mangled piece of metal inscribed with two Chinese characters but Chinese Internet users suggested it may be a kettle.

“People are more vigilant. They are going to think any metallic object they find on the beach is from flight MH370, but there are objects all along the coast, the ocean continually throws them up,” said Jean-Yves Sambimanan, a spokesman for the town of Saint-Andre where the wing debris was found.

 

He said islanders were dumbfounded that after cursory helicopter flights the day after the wing part was found, no official search of the coastline was underway.

It is now 16 months since MH370 disappeared on March 8, 2014, en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people on board.

“There is a sort of ‘treasure hunt’ mentality that is taking hold and people are calling us for everything,” said a source close to the investigation.

Malaysia’s Transport Minister Liow Tiong Lai said civil aviation authorities were reaching out to their counterparts in other Indian Ocean territories to be on the lookout for debris.

“This is to allow the experts to conduct more substantive analysis should there be more debris coming onto land, providing us more clues to the missing aircraft.”

He also confirmed in a statement that the wing part found on the island had been “officially identified” as from a Boeing 777 — making it virtually certain that it was from the missing flight.

It is the only Boeing 777 to have been lost at sea.

The flight’s mysterious disappearance, which saw it vanish off radars as a key transponder appeared to have been shut off, has baffled aviation experts and grieving families and given rise to a number of conspiracy theories.

Speculation on the cause of the plane’s disappearance has focused primarily on a possible mechanical or structural failure, a hijacking or terror plot, or rogue pilot action.

Scientists say it is plausible that ocean currents carried a piece of the wreckage as far as La Reunion. However, authorities have warned that even if the debris is confirmed to have come from MH370 it is unlikely to completely clear up one of aviation’s greatest puzzles.

The mystery of what happened to the plane and where exactly it went down are still likely to persist unless the black box is found.

The wing piece will be examined in a laboratory near the French city of Toulouse that specializes in plane crash investigations.

Four Malaysian officials, including the head of civil aviation, are in Paris together with officials from Malaysia Airlines for a meeting today with three French magistrates and an official from France’s civil aviation investigating authority BEA.

Australian search authorities leading the hunt for the aircraft some 4,000 kilometers from La Reunion are confident that the main debris field is in the current search area.

For the victims’ families, torn between wanting closure and holding on to hopes their loved ones are somehow still alive, the discovery of the part has been yet another painful twist on an emotional rollercoaster.

“It has been hurting for so long. We need the closure and all the evidence possible so that we can go ahead with our lives. It’s been so long,” said Nur Laila Ngah, the wife of the flight’s chief steward Wan Swaid Wan Ismail.

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