BALMA, France — French and Malaysian experts on Wednesday began examining an airplane wing fragment that could offer the first tangible clue about the fate of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, which vanished more than a year ago with 239 people aboard.
Intact and encrusted with barnacles, the metal piece washed up on the Indian Ocean island of Reunion and was sent to France, where investigators will determine whether it’s from the missing Boeing 777, which disappeared after veering far off its set northerly course from Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia to Beijing.
In addition to confirming the provenance of the 777 flap, analysts say the investigators will examine the metal with high-powered microscopes to gain insight into what caused the plane to go down.