The Asian reporter., August 03, 2015, Page Page 5, Image 5

ASIA / PACIFIC
August 3, 2015
THE ASIAN REPORTER n Page 5
Wing part could help solve what happened to MH370
FLAPERON FOUND. French police officers
carry a piece of debris from a plane in Saint-Andre,
Reunion island. Air-safety investigators, one of them a
Boeing investigator, have identified the component as
a “flaperon” from the trailing edge of a Boeing 777
wing, according to a U.S. official. Flight 370, which
disappeared March 8, 2014 with 239 people on
board, is the only 777 known to be missing. (AP
Photo/Lucas Marie)
By Andrew Meldrum and Sylvie Corbet
The Associated Press
S
AINT-ANDRE, Reunion — A
barnacle-encrusted wing part that
washed up on a remote Indian
Ocean island could help solve one of
aviation’s
greatest
mysteries,
as
investigators work to officially confirm
that it belongs to the Malaysia Airlines
flight that vanished more than a year ago.
The surprise discovery of the debris on a
rocky beach stirred hopes and emotion
among families of the missing, after a year
and a half of grieving and frustration at a
lack of answers, despite a wide, deep, and
expensive multinational search effort in
the southern Indian Ocean, the China Sea,
and the Gulf of Thailand.
Even if it is confirmed to be a long-
awaited first clue to the disappearance of
Flight 370, there’s no guarantee investiga-
tors can still find the plane’s recorders or
other remains.
French authorities moved the plane
piece from the beach to the local airport on
Reunion and sent it to the city of Toulouse,
according to the Paris prosecutor’s office.
Toulouse is the hub of Europe’s aero-
space industry, with the headquarters of
Airbus and a network of hangars and
plane facilities. The plane part will be
analyzed this week in special defense fa-
cilities used for airplane testing and analy-
sis, according to the Defense Ministry.
Air safety investigators, including one
from Boeing, have identified the compo-
nent found on the French island of
Reunion as a “flaperon” from the trailing
edge of a Boeing 777 wing, a U.S. official
said. The official wasn’t authorized to be
publicly named.
Flight 370, which disappeared March 8,
2014 with 239 people on board, is the only
777 known to be missing. The unsuccessful
search for the plane has raised concerns
worldwide about whether airliners should
be required to transmit their locations
continually via satellite, especially when
flying long distances over the ocean.
Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott,
whose country is leading the search for the
plane in a remote patch of ocean far off
Australia’s west coast, expressed hope
that the part would help solve the baffling
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mystery that has left the families of those
on board in an agonizing limbo.
“Nothing has been confirmed, but
obviously this is, by far, the most
encouraging sign so far,” Abbott told
Sydney radio station 2SM. “We have long
thought it went down somewhere in the
Indian Ocean and, at last, it seems that we
may be on the verge of some confirmation.”
If it turns out to be part of the Malaysian
plane, it could bolster the theory that the
plane deviated from its path between
Kuala Lumpur and Beijing and turned
south into the Indian Ocean. And it would
put to rest speculation that it could have
travelled north or landed somewhere after
being hijacked.
The discovery has changed the life of
Reunion environmental worker Johnny
Begue. He told The Associated Press that
he stumbled across the plane part while
collecting stones to grind spices.
“I knew immediately it was part of an
aircraft, but I didn’t realize how important
it was, that it could help to solve the mys-
tery of what happened to the Malaysian
jet,” Begue, 46, told The Associated Press.
He said he called several of his work-
mates and they carried the wing fragment
out of the water so that it would not be
battered by the surf against the volcanic
rocks that make up most of the beach.
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#25787
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Instructions: Fill in the grid so that the digits 1
through 9 appear one time each in every row, col-
umn, and 3x3 box.
Solution to
last week’s
puzzle
Puzzle #34261 (Medium)
All solutions available at
<www.sudoku.com>.
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Begue also discovered a piece of a
suitcase about 2.5 meters away, he said,
though it’s unclear whether there is any
link to the plane wing.
Authorities wouldn’t comment on
whether Begue was the first to report
discovering the component. Colleague
Teddy Riviere corroborated his account,
and praised him for the discovery.
Members of Begue’s soccer team kidded
him on his new fame in local media.
Australian
officials
expressed
skepticism that the suitcase was
associated with the wing part. Australian
transport minister Warren Truss noted
that there did not appear to be any marine
life attached to the suitcase, indicating it
probably hadn’t been in the water for long.
The wing piece is about six feet long.
Investigators found a number on the part,
but it is not a serial or registration
number, Truss said. It’s likely a mainte-
nance number, he said. Another number
was reportedly found on the wing; more
information will be discovered after
analysis of the part begins Wednesday.
Malaysian authorities also headed to
Reunion and Toulouse.
“We have had many false alarms before,
but for the sake of the families who have
lost loved ones, and suffered such
heartbreaking uncertainty, I pray that we
will find out the truth so that they may
have closure and peace,” Prime Minister
Najib Razak said in a statement.
French law enforcement authorities
went to Reunion island to examine the
piece, according to an official close to the
investigation of the debris. A French law
enforcement helicopter is scouring the
waters around the island in hopes of
spotting more debris, and U.S. investiga-
tors are examining a photo of the debris.
The wing part was found on a desolate,
rocky beach in the small town of Saint-
Andre.
Flaperons are located on the rear edge of
both wings, about midway between the
fuselage and the tips. When the plane is
banking, the flaperon on one wing tilts up
and the other tilts down, which makes the
plane roll to the left or right as it turns.
The piece could help investigators figure
out how the plane crashed, but whether it
will help search crews pinpoint the rest of
the wreckage is unclear, given the
complexity of the currents in the southern
Indian Ocean and the time that has
elapsed since the plane disappeared.
The last primary radar contact with
Flight 370 placed its position over the
Andaman Sea about 230 miles northwest
of the Malaysian city of Penang. Reunion is
about 3,500 miles southwest of Penang,
and about 2,600 miles west of the current
search area.
Officials predicted that Indian Ocean
currents would eventually carry any
floating debris from the plane to the east
coast of Africa. But experts say it would be
difficult if not impossible to trace those
currents back to the precise location of the
main wreckage, given the length of time
that has elapsed and the vast distance the
part may have travelled.
There is precedence for large objects
travelling vast distances across the Indian
Continued on page 11
South Korean prime minister
says MERS threat is over
IBM’s Watson computing
technology learns Japanese
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korean Prime Min-
ister Hwang Kyo-ahn says the country is now virtually
free of the deadly MERS (Middle East Respiratory
Syndrome) virus that killed 36 people and sickened nearly
200 since an outbreak was declared in May.
Hwang in a meeting with policymakers urged people to
return to normal as the country hasn’t seen a new MERS
case in more than three weeks and there is no longer
anyone isolated at hospitals and homes for treatment.
MERS was discovered in 2012 and the cases had been
mostly centered in Saudi Arabia before the outbreak in
South Korea. The MERS virus belongs to the family of
coronaviruses that include the common cold and SARS,
and can cause fever, breathing problems, pneumonia, and
kidney failure.
TOKYO (AP) — The IBM Watson super-brainy
computing technology, which has helped organize
massive data as well as beaten champions on the
“Jeopardy” TV show, is now learning Japanese.
IBM Watson, a unit of the U.S. technology and
consulting company, said it was working with Japanese
telecommunications and robotics company Softbank
Corp. to share Watson with startups and universities
for a variety of consumer applications starting in Octo-
ber.
Watson senior vice president Mike Rhodin told
reporters Watson is an effective tool in handling a large
amount of unstructured data, such as clinical tests,
information on drugs, and regulations in the legal field.
He says Watson can help teachers, too.
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