MH370: Washed up debris found on Reunion Island is from the missing flight, confirms Malaysian PM

Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak confirmed on Thursday morning that the piece of aircraft debris found on the Indian Ocean island of La Reunion is from the missing MH370 flight, but many questions remain unanswered, say families of the missing passengers and crew.

Extending his sympathies towards the victims, Mr Najib said, "We now have physical evidence that, as I announced on 24th March last year, flight MH370 tragically ended in the southern Indian Ocean." He added that a team of experts who have been involved in the search have “conclusively confirmed” that the debris belongs to the missing flight.

However within hours of his announcement, a French prosecutor said that while the washed up piece could be from flight MH370, the finding still needed confirmation. Deputy Paris prosecutor Serge Mackowiak also said a part of the suitcase that was found on Reunion Island would be investigated by French gendarme police without delay.

Meanwhile, in the presence of French, Malaysian, Chinese and American representatives, experts from the French military laboratory in the city of Toulouse have been examining the flaperon that was found last Wednesday, and are treating it as a part of the missing Boeing 777 flight.

It is believed that while Mr Najib's announcement might put an end to the sorrow and uncertainty faced by families of the missing passengers and crew, they, along with investigators and the aviation industry are still waiting for answers as to why the Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 aircraft diverted on its way from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8, 2014.

Investigators believe that the aircraft’s transponder was deliberately switched off, before being diverted thousands of miles off course, and deliberately crashed into the Indian Ocean.

As for now, families of those missing are still unsatisfied with the answers given as they are keen on finding out the main cause behind the aircraft's sudden disappearance, and continue to harbour suspicion towards the Malaysian government.

“It’s not the end," Jacquita Gonzales, who lost her husband Patrick Gomes, a flight attendant on board the aircraft, told Reuters. "Although they found something...they still need to find the whole plane and our spouses as well. We still want them back.”

"Now I want to know where the main body of the plane is so that we can take out the passengers and get the black box so we can know what happened," Gonzales added .

Lee Khim Fatt, whose wife Foong Wai Yueng was a flight attendant, added: "I'm still not satisfied. There are still so many questions left unanswered, so many holes in the puzzle. He added that the discovery of a flaperon wasn’t enough to put an end to so many unsolved questions.

The Malaysian government has previously been accused of covering up the disaster with false reports, however PM Najib has said that investigations will continue.

“I would like to assure all those affected by this tragedy that the government of Malaysia is committed to do everything within our means to find out the truth of what happened," he said. "MH370's disappearance marked us as a nation. We mourn with you, as a nation."

Considering the discovery as a major breakthrough in the resolving the mystery, he hoped that other objects from the missing flight MH370 will be found, and which will be subjected to further examination.

'I want to know where the main body of the plane is,' he said, while asking the authorities to begin searching the shores in hopes of finding other pieces of debris that might have washed up.

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