Investigators 'confident' debris is from a Boeing 777, the same model as MH370

• Wreckage found on island in Indian Ocean could be from MH370.
• Officials say debris in photos looks like it belongs to Boeing 777.
• An aviation lawyer said Boeing engineers should be able to identify the wreckage within 24 hours.
• NZ aviation expert says the most important thing to do now is wait until the part is identified.
• The sister of Kiwi victim says news has left her feeling "wee bit sick".
  
  

Air crash investigators have "a high degree of confidence" that a piece of wreckage found on the Indian Ocean island of La Reunion is from a Boeing 777 - the same model as the doomed MH370 which disappeared in March 2014.

Air safety investigators - one of them a Boeing investigator - have identified the component as a "flaperon" from the trailing edge of a 777 wing.

Investigators will need to examine closely the wreckage to link it to MH370, but it was the only aircraft of its type lost over water.

The debris appears to be part of a wing and was taken onto the island of La Reunion, where it will be thoroughly inspected. Photo: AFP/ Getty Images

A French official close to an investigation of the debris confirmed that French law enforcement is on site to examine a piece of airplane wing found on the island.

An aviation lawyer said the find was "hugely significant" and companies linked to the aircraft's manufacture will know "almost immediately" if the wreckage was of a 777.

Mary Schiavo, a former inspector general of the US Department of Transportation, told Radio New Zealand that Boeing engineers should be able to identify the wreckage within 24 hours.

There were very few 777 plane crashes and there had been none in the area where the wreckage was found, she said.

Ms Schiavo told Radio New Zealand her initial assessment of wreckage pictures indicated the plane involved had come to "a very sharp end".

She said the part appeared "unique" to a 777 and it should have a unique identifying number, which should help investigators solve the mystery.

New Zealand aviation expert Peter Clark told NZME News Service the most important thing to do now was wait until the part was identified by aerospace companies Boeing or Airbus, as being one of their components.

Mr Clark said the part appeared to be a flaperon which makes up the wing of the plane. Judging by photos, it appeared the component was fairly old, he said.

"We need to get the serial numbers of the component off that part to identify the ownership of it. It's looking positive."

Mr Clark said if the debris was positively identified as a piece from a Boeing 777, it would reinforce his belief it was a deliberate act.

"If it proves to be from MH370 it proves what I have been saying all along. I feel it has been a deliberate action. That plane was taken to the southern oceans, it ran out of fuel and descended into the sea somewhere in those regions."

Mr Clark predicted that authorities should have a more definitive answer within the first 24 hours.

If the debris turns out to be from Malaysia Airlines flight 370, it will be the first major break in the effort to discover what happened to the plane after it vanished on March 8, 2014, with 239 people on board while traveling from Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia to Beijing.

At the United Nations, Malaysian Transport Minister Liow Tiong Lai told reporters that he has sent a team to verify the identity of the plane wreckage.

He said: "Whatever wreckage found needs to be further verified before we can ever confirm that it is belonged to MH370."

News of the discovery has left relatives of the victims numb. The sister of a New Zealander on board said she was left with a sinking feeling.

Sara Weeks's brother Paul, a former engineer from Christchurch, was on board the Boeing 777, travelling to Mongolia for his new job with Transwest Mongolia. He was one of two Kiwis on the flight - the other was Ximin Wang, 50, from Auckland.

Sara said: "Basically the whole process has been quite long-winded and quite drawn out and no one even knows anything. This morning when I got up and saw the news is when I found out about it.

"I just feel a wee bit sick. Just 'oh s***, is that it?'

"But at the same time I'm torn. It could be it, it might not be. I'm aware it has some kind of serial number on it so potentially they'll be able to tell us whether it is or not fairly quickly, which I guess could be a good thing," Ms Weeks said.

Even if it were the wreckage of MH370, there would still be unanswered questions. "We still need to know what happened. Where's the rest of the plane and where are all our family members?" she asked.

"It just still leave a lot of questions it's not going to solve."

Ms Weeks had not received any official notification from authorities about the news. She said her brother's widow Danica would normally get updates, although contact has been sporadic.

Ms Weeks was yet to speak to Danica, who lives in Perth. "I guess while there's nothing found, we've still got that hope that they will be."

Xavier Tytelman, an expert in aviation security whose blog sparked the frenzy of speculation, told NZME News Service he believed the wreckage was of MH370.

Mr Tytelman said he reached his conclusion after he and colleagues studied photographs of the wreckage.

"I've been spending the whole day checking and trying to compare with with all the aircraft and all the data we have," he said.

In the photographs of the wing, Mr Tytelman said a "match" was found between the wing flaps and those of a Boeing 777.

Added to that was the age of the wreckage, which was not covered in sea grass.

"It's quite clean and according to local police, they say it was in the water for one or two years and no more."

One of the images reportedly shows a section from the wing of flight MH370. Photo / PeurAvion

Mr Tytelman said the only two planes to go down or missing in that area of the Indian Ocean in recent years were MH370 and a Yemenia Air flight in 2010.

However, the Yemenia Air flight was a a different type of plane; an Airbus A310.

"[That aircraft] doesn't fit the shape of the wings and it doesn't fit to the wreckage, and after that you only have the Boeing 777."
Mr Tytelman conceded, however, that even if there were tiny sea currents of only 1 km/h, the located wing could have travelled some distance.

Officials are examining debris found washed up on Reunion island east of Madagascar to determine if it is related to the missing MH370. Photo: AFP / Getty Images

Among the passengers were two New Zealanders - former Christchurch engineer and father of two young sons Paul Weeks, 38, and Ximin Wang, 50, from Auckland.

Boeing said in a statement it remained "committed to supporting the MH370 investigation and the search for the airplane."

The airline manufacturer said: "We continue to share our technical expertise and analysis. Our goal, along with the entire global aviation industry, continues to be not only to find the airplane, but also to determine what happened - and why."

The debris appears to be part of a wing and was taken onto the island, a French department, this morning, according to Adjutant Christian Retournat.

"It is way too soon to say whether or not it is MH370. We just found the debris this morning in the coast of Saint Andre," Retournat told CNN Wednesday.

The flat, white hunk of metal is almost certainly a part of an airplane wing. More specifically, Metro reports it is that of a Boeing 777, the same model plane as MH370, which went down after taking off from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on March 8, 2014 en route to Beijing with 239 aboard.

Mr Weeks' widow Danica said last year that when she and her two young children said goodbye to him they never thought it would be for the last time.

Mr Weeks was travelling to Mongolia for his new job with Transwest Mongolia.

"But now, March 7 is permanently engraved in my mind and often on rewind," she wrote in a British newspaper last year. "Not only as the day we kissed Paul goodbye at Perth Airport, but because mentally, for me, it is still March 7."

Ms Weeks wrote not knowing what really happened to her husband continued to haunt her.

"Every waking minute, your mind runs scenarios of what might have happened," she said.

"You are searching the news constantly for any small piece of information that may give you a clue to their whereabouts, and your heart pounds every time the phone rings. Is this it? Have they found something?"

Wild theories emerged about the plane: that it had landed in Diego Garcia, or flown on to North Korea.

But Mr Tytelman believes that the Indian Ocean location makes sense for wreckage of the plane to have washed up.

"The French police are now looking at it, and the Australians - who are in charge of the search - are interested too," he said. "We don't know how long it will take to get confirmation or a definite denial. But it's an intriguing development."

Writing on his blog, Mr Tytelman said that the photos of the wreckage had aroused significant interest on the AvGeek website - a closed forum for pilots.

He said that there was much discussion over a code part of the wreckage: BB670.

"The code is not that of a plane number plate, nor that or a serial number on machinery," he wrote.

"But if the flaperon does indeed belong to MH370, it's clear that the reference will be swiftly identified. In a few days we will have a definitive answer."

- Additional reporting from The Telegraph

- NZME.