MH370: France, Malaysia to identify aircraft debris

Sydney, July 31: The French and Malaysian governments have the primary responsibility to identify the aircraft debris found off the east African coast, Australia's Deputy Prime Minister Warren Truss said on Friday.

"Of course it is one thing to identify these parts as being from a Boeing 777, and then a second thing that they are a part from the specific aircraft that operated Flight MH370," the minister said on the sidelines of the Boao Forum for Asia conference in Sydney.

The two-meter piece of plane wreckage, suspected to be a wing flap of a Boeing 777, will be transported to France for analysis at the end of this week, Xinhua news agency reported.

The debris was found on a small island east of Madagascar on Africa's east coast, thousands of kilometer from where MH370 is believed to have crashed.

The most important part of the discovery, will be closure for the victims' families.

"It's important for them to have some positive indication about what may have happened to their loved ones," he said.

The fact that wreckage is on the Reunion Island or Madagascar area is consistent with some of the modeling done in relation to current movements and the predictions as to where wreckage from 370 could make landfall.

"We are confident on the basis of continuing refinement, continuing assessment of the satellite data that the search area is correct. We will be continuing to concentrate on the southern end of that identified area."

IANS