Flaperon Find: Expert Team To Leave For Paris Thursday Night

KUALA LUMPUR, July 31 (Bernama) -- Four experts from the Malaysian Department of Civil Aviation, Malaysia Airlines and the Transport Ministry will leave for Paris Thursday night to determine if aircraft debris found on Reunion Island in the Indian Ocean belongs to missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370. This was confirmed by Malaysian Deputy Transport Minister Abdul Aziz Kaprawi who said the team would leave directly for Paris and not go to the island, which is under French jurisdiction, and located near Madagascar. "We have contacted the Office of Investigations and Analysis (BEA) which is the French investigation body for accidents in civil aviation, on this find. "We came to an agreement that they will bring the flaperon to Paris, so our team will work together with them in making (the) verifications in Paris," he told Bernama here Thursday. It was reported that the debris from the flaperon which drifted to the island early this morning could be that of MH370 which went missing on March 8 last year. Abdul Aziz also said it was too early to draw any conclusions until there was solid proof that the debris belonged to the missing aircraft. Flight MH370 disappeared from the radar on March 8 last year while en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 227 passengers and 12 crew. On Jan 29 this year, the DCA announced the flight's disappearance as an accident under international aviation regulations, and that all 239 people on board were considered to have perished. --BERNAMA