CRI听力:Debris Found on Reunion Island Confirmed to Be from Missing Plane MH370

The announcement that the debris found on the Indian Ocean island of Reunion, east of Madagascar, is from flight MH370 is the first physical evidence discovered from the missing flight.

French official Serge Mackowiak, who is assisting in the investigation of the debris, says there is strong enough evidence to link the debris to the missing flight.

"Representatives from Boeing aeronautics have confirmed that the flap did come from a Boeing 777, based on is technical characteristics - its dimension, colour, structure. The second reason is that representatives from Malaysia Airlines have provided parts of the technical documentation of Boeing 777 Flight MH370, and based on this it has been possible to make a connection between the piece examined and the flap of MH370."

Investigators are hoping the wreckage can help solve the mystery of what happened to the Malaysia Airlines flight that disappeared last March.

Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak says the confirmation can also help bring some closure for the relatives of those onboard, who have been desperate for answers.
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"The burden and uncertainty faced by the families during this time has been unspeakable. It is my hope that this confirmation, however tragic and painful, will at least bring certainty to the families and loved ones of the 239 people onboard MH370."

The Malaysia Airlines jet disappeared on March 8th last year, veering off course en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people on board, sparking a colossal multinational hunt for the aircraft.

However, endless months of searching had failed to turn up any evidence of the missing aircraft until the two-metre-long portion of a Boeing 777 wing, known as a flaperon, was found washed ashore on Reunion Island last week, some 4-thousand kilometers where the search for the missing plane has been focused.

French investigators say more analysis is needed before they can start to make any determination about what may have caused the plane to crash.

A lab in Toulouse is now trying to determine whether the shape of the two metre flaperon corresponds to a mid-air explosion or a crash into the ocean.

A luggage fragment, also found on Reunion Island, has been sent to a police unit outside Paris that specializes in DNA testing.

Some families of the victims – two-thirds of whom are Chinese - are still demanding more from the airline, including compensation and more answers about what exactly happened.

There are still lingering questions about what caused the plane to veer off course, flying for hours after its communications and tracking systems were shut off, in what remains one of the biggest mysteries in the history of aviation.

For Cri I'm Poornima Weerasekara.