Relatives of Chinese passengers who were aboard Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 tried to enter the carrier’s offices in Beijing on Wednesday. Credit How Hwee Young/European Pressphoto Agency
If the part of the trailing edge of a jet’s wing that washed up on the island of Réunion last week is from the Boeing 777 flying as Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, the authorities hope that it can tell them something more about the plane’s last moments before it descended into the Indian Ocean more than a year ago.
The part, known as a flaperon, was flown from the French island of Réunion, near Madagascar, to a laboratory in Toulouse, France, where Malaysian, Australian and French officials have gathered to examine it, along with representatives from Boeing.
The office of the Paris prosecutor said it would hold a news conference at 8 p.m. local time (2 p.m. Eastern time) to discuss “analysis operations conducted today within the framework of the disappearance” of Flight 370. The prosecutor’s office is involved in the inquiry because four French citizens were among the 239 people on the plane when it disappeared on March 8, 2014.
It was not clear whether any conclusions would be announced on Wednesday.