Australia sent expert to take part in examination of B777 flaperon

PETALING JAYA: Australia has sent an expert from the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) to Toulouse, France, to take part in the examination of the B777 flaperon found on La Réunion island recently.
In a statement published on the Australia's for Infrastructure and Regional Development website, its minister and Australia Deputy Prime Minister Warren Truss has confirmed this, adding that this was done at the invitation of the French judiciary.
"An investigator from the ATSB will join the French and Malaysian-led international investigation team today to examine aircraft wreckage found on La Réunion.
"Malaysian authorities, who are responsible for investigating the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, have determined that the aircraft component retrieved from La Réunion is a flaperon from a B777 aircraft," he said, noting that work is being undertaken by both the Malaysian and French authorities to establish whether the flaperon originated from Flight MH370.
Trust added that the Malaysian and French officials may be in a position to make a formal statement about the origin of the flaperon later this week.
"In the meantime, I am advised that Australia's CSIRO (Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation) drift modelling, 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.
"For this reason, thorough and methodical search efforts will continue to be focused on the defined underwater search area, covering 120,000 square kilometres, in the southern Indian Ocean," Truss added.
Last week, the two-metre flaperon was found of the island, sprouting reports of other objects, believed to be from an airplane being found on the island a few days later.
This brought hope on the investigations into the Malaysian Airlines aircraft, which went missing with 239 people onboard since March 8 last year.