MH370: Malaysia Despatches Team To Verify Whether Flaperon Is From MH370

PUTRAJAYA (Malaysia), July 30 (Bernama) -- Malaysia has despatched a team of experts to La Reunion Island in the Indian Ocean to verify whether a flaperon, which was reportedly discovered on the island, belongs to the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370. In a statement issued here Thursday, the Transport Ministry said the team despatched to the island comprised experts from the Department of Civil Aviation, Malaysia Airlines and the Malaysian International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) Annex 13 Safety Investigation Team for MH370. "We are in contact with our counterpart from Bureau d'Enquêtes et d'Analyses (BEA), the French air crash investigation agency, pertaining to this matter," it said. It was reported that the fragment of a wing washed up on the island and found on Wednesday could be wreckage from MAS MH370, which went missing in March 2014 with 239 people on board. The Transport Ministry said it would be premature to speculate at this juncture until there was tangible and irrefutable evidence that the flaperon belonged to the missing aircraft. The ministry said it would make the necessary announcements once the details had been verified. Flight MH370 disappeared from radar screens on March 8, last year as it flew from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 227 passengers and 12 crew on board. On Jan 29, this year, the Malaysian Department of Civil Aviation 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. --BERNAMA