By Robert Wall and Jason Chow
PARIS--Efforts to establish whether a piece of airline debris
found on Réunion Island is part of the long-missing Malaysia
Airlines Flight 370 advanced on Saturday with the arrival in France
of the wreckage that is widely believed to belong to a Boeing 777
jetliner.
The piece of airplane wing, called a flaperon, was packaged in a
special crate and transported by plane to France overnight. It
arrived early Saturday morning at Orly Airport, south of Paris, and
is being taken by road with a police convoy to a special laboratory
near Toulouse in southwestern France to be analyzed.
The facility near Toulouse belongs to the French military and
specializes in analyzing plane parts. It has previously been used
in other high-profile accident investigations, including the crash
of Air France Flight 447 into the Atlantic in 2009 on its flight
from Rio de Janeiro to Paris.
Investigators aren't expected to start inspecting the wreckage
before Wednesday because of procedural steps under the
judiciary-led probe.
The debris, which measures about 10 feet by 5 feet, washed
ashore the west Indian Ocean island near Madagascar on Wednesday.
It was quickly taken under police guard before leaving the island
on an overnight flight on Friday.
If the debris is linked to the Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777,
which has been missing for almost 17 months, it would be the first
concrete clue for investigators trying to unravel one of modern
aviation's greatest mysteries.
Investigators believe the flight crashed in the Indian Ocean on
March 8 last year after veering sharply off its intended flight
path from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.
French authorities also recovered a piece of luggage on Réunion
Island that will go to a separate crime laboratory in Pontoise,
northwest of Paris, to establish its origin. A water bottle that
washed ashore the beach is also due to be examined for a possible
link to the flight, though locals caution trash from remote areas
often finds its way onto the beaches of Réunion.
Martin Dolan, the head of the Australian Transport Safety
Bureau, on Friday said the plane part was "very likely" from a
Boeing 777, echoing the views of other safety experts and engineers
familiar with the long-range jet's design. No formal link to Flight
370 has been established, though many officials believe one is
likely.
Boeing said on Friday it would dispatch a technical team to
Toulouse to help analyze the debris after it was formally invited
to join the probe. Engineers at the world's largest jetliner maker
had already been exchanging photos and technical information with a
technical team to establish the provenance of the plane
component.
French air accident investigators are due to meet with their
Malaysian counterparts on Monday, along with French and Malaysian
judicial authorities, to discuss the examination of the debris, the
Paris prosecutor's office said. The meeting could establish the
role of the BEA, France's civil air accident organization, in the
probe.
The investigation is being led by a French investigative
magistrate because the debris was recovered on French territory.
Four French nationals died on Flight 370.
Malaysian authorities, who are formally in charge of the Flight
370 probe, may also participate in inspecting the debris in France.
The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board could play a role,
too, safety experts said.
If the part is linked to Flight 370, responsibility for the
component would transfer to Malaysian authorities leading that
probe, a spokesman for the Paris prosecutor has previously
said.
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