Flaperon Confirmed As 777 Part

The flaperon found on a beach on French-owned Reunion Island last week has been confirmed as a piece of a Boeing 777 of the same model operated as MH370. Malaysian authorities confirmed Sunday that the control surface was positively identified as being from a 777 and the next step is to match the part’s serial number to the aircraft that went missing last March on a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.

The flaperon found on a beach on French-owned Reunion Island last week has been confirmed as a piece of a Boeing 777 of the same model operated as MH370. Malaysian authorities confirmed Sunday that the control surface was positively identified as being from a 777 and the next step is to match the part's serial number to the aircraft that went missing last March on a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. But since only one 777 has crashed in that part of the world it's likely the forensics people in France's aviation accident lab in Toulouse aren't waiting for that box to be ticked while they examine the piece of wreckage for clues about the aircraft's final flight.

The flaperon might not be the first piece of the aircraft to wash up on Reunion Island, which is in the western part of the Indian Ocean near Madagascar. A beach cleaner told reporters over the weekend that he found a seat that looked like it came from an airplane in May and thought nothing about it. He burned it with other flotsam he found. There was a flurry of reports that other bits of the aircraft might have been found over the weekend; Malaysian authorities have downplayed their discovery. Although the confirmation that the flaperon is from MH370 will also confirm its fate and that of those on board, it will be of little help in determining the location of the crash. About all those in the Australian-led search for the missing jet can say is that finding a piece of the wreckage on Reunion Island fits with the behavior of ocean currents to carry floating objects from the primary search area about 2,500 miles to the east.