By Rob Taylor
CANBERRA--Australia will assist French authorities with the
investigation into aircraft debris that washed ashore on Réunion
Island, with an expert sent to the French city of Toulouse to help
determine if the Boeing 777 flap came from Malaysia Airlines Flight
370.
"An investigator from the Australian Transport Safety Bureau
will join the French and Malaysian-led international investigation
team today to examine aircraft wreckage found on La Réunion,"
Australia's Deputy Prime Minister Warren Truss said in a
statement.
Malaysian authorities responsible for investigating the
disappearance of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 had determined the
aircraft component retrieved from Réunion Island is a flapper on
from a B777 aircraft, Mr. Truss said, adding that a statement was
expected later this week.
"In the meantime, I am advised that Australia's CSIRO drift
modeling, commissioned by the ATSB, confirms that material from the
current search area could have been carried to La Réunion, as well
as other locations, as part of a progressive dispersal of floating
debris through the action of ocean currents and wind," he said.
Flight 370 disappeared on March 8 last year with 239 people on
board. Search teams have failed to find any trace of the aircraft
in a search zone in the southern Indian Ocean off the coast of
Western Australia where it is believed the plane crashed.
Write to Rob Taylor at rob.taylor@wsj.com
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