MH370: Flaperon Verification In 'One Or Two Days' - Minister

PUTRAJAYA (Malaysia), July 31 (Bernama) -- A Malaysian team will be able to verify in "one or two days" whether the flaperon found on Reunion Island in the Indian Ocean is part of the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370, said Malaysian Deputy Transport Minister Abdul Aziz Kaprawi. He said the two-metre-long piece of wreckage found on the island was being flown to Toulouse, France, and was expected to arrive there Friday. "It is a small part and they can easily identify (it). I was told they discovered the part number (stamped on various parts of the component)," he told reporters here Friday. Abdul Aziz said the Transport Ministry had despatched a four-member team, led by Department of Civil Aviation director-general Azharuddin Abdul Rahman, to Toulouse to make the verification. He said the team would collaborate with the Bureau d'Enquêtes et d'Analyses (BEA), the French aviation investigative agency, for the verification. On reports that Australian search authorities were "increasingly confident" that the debris was from MH370, Abdul Aziz said: "We have to wait for the clarification by our team in Toulouse." Flight MH370, a Boeing 777 carrying 227 passengers and 12 crew, disappeared from radar on March 8 last year about an hour after taking off from the KL International Airport on a flight to Beijing. On Jan 29, this year, the DCA announced that the disappearance of the aircraft was an accident based on international aviation rules and that all 239 people on board were deemed to have lost their lives. Prime Minister Najib Razak said on Thursday initial reports suggested that the debris was very likely to be from a Boeing 777 aircraft but there was a need to verify whether it was from MH370. Asked about the next course of action if the flaperon belonged to MH370, Abdul Aziz said there would be further investigation in collaboration with BEA. "I hope we can find a closure," he said. --BERNAMA