MH370 analysts meet in France

Malaysian aviation experts met French officials Monday to coordinate the investigation into missing flight MH370, days after the discovery of a washed-up plane part offered fresh hopes of solving the mystery. The Malaysian team arrived at the Palais de Justice in Paris shortly before 1200 GMT to meet with a French judge, a group of experts and police charged with the investigation. They were due to release a statement after the meeting. France is leading the current phase of the investigation after a two-meter-long flaperon, already confirmed to be part of a Boeing 777, surfaced last week on the French Indian Ocean island of Reunion. Technical experts, including from US aerospace giant Boeing, will begin examining the wing component Wednesday, which is likely to have come from the doomed Malaysia Airlines flight as no other such plane is known to have crashed in the area. Mauritius said it would do all it can to search for more debris after Malaysia appealed to islands near Reunion to hunt for clues. In one of the most baffling mysteries in aviation history, MH370 inexplicably veered off course in March 2014 and disappeared from radars, sparking a colossal hunt that has until now proved fruitless. In January, Malaysian authorities declared all 239 people on board MH370 presumed dead. The wing part will undergo physical and chemical analysis in the southern French city of Toulouse in a bid to prove beyond doubt that the flaperon once belonged to MH370. It will be examined with an electron microscope "that can magnify up to 10,000 times" to try to understand how it was damaged, said Pierre Bascary, former director of tests at France's General Directorate for Armaments. Howwever, experts have warned grieving families not to expect startling revelations from a single part. "We shouldn't expect miracles from this analysis," said Jean-Paul Troadec, former head of France's BEA civil flight authority. In order to provide clues on what happened to the aircraft, "the part would need to be at the center of the accident and the chances are fairly small," he noted. Meanwhile, more than 9,000 kilometers away, locals on Reunion were scouring beaches for more debris. On Sunday, there was a frenzy of speculation over what locals believed to be a plane door, but which authorities quickly identified as part of a domestic ladder. Also on Sunday, Reunion police collected a mangled piece of metal with Chinese characters and attached to what appeared to be a leather-covered handle, sparking more frenzied speculation. However, Chinese Internet users suggested it may simply be a kettle.