New Delhi : A piece of aircraft wreckage found on an Indian Ocean island last week is from flight MH370 that disappeared with 239 people on board more than a year ago, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak said.
“It is with a very heavy heart that I must tell you that an international team of experts has conclusively confirmed that the aircraft debris found on Reunion Island is indeed from MH370,” he told reporters.
The two-metre-long flaperon was found on the French Indian Ocean island of Reunion, near Madagascar. It was examined at an aeronautical test centre in Toulouse, France.
A flaperon is a part of the wing used to manage the lift and control the roll of an aircraft. “We now have physical evidence that, as I announced on 24th March last year, flight MH370 tragically ended in the southern Indian Ocean,” Najib said.
“MH370’s disappearance marked us as a nation. We mourn with you, as a nation.”
The ill-fated Malaysia Airlines jet was carrying 239 crew and passengers, including five Indians, when it disappeared on a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8 last year. The search operation had found no verified sign of the plane. — PTI