Mystery of MH370 could be solved as early as tomorrow
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After more than a year of waiting, the world may soon know the final resting place of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, which disappeared from radar on March 8, 2014 with 239 people on board.
A piece of airplane debris discovered this week on the French island of Reunion was to be loaded Friday onto a plane bound for France.
The plane part, which investigators believe is a "flaperon" and matches those that are found on the 777, will be analyzed by experts on Saturday.
Jacquita Gomes, of Kuala Lumpur, is the wife of one of the flight attendants who was on the plane.
"It's going to be a nail-biting weekend but we cannot rush it," Gomes told NBC News. "We have been waiting for more than 500 days. The agony continues and I hope there will be answers soon."
The barnacle-encrusted wing piece is about 2 meters (6 feet) long. Air safety investigators, including one from Boeing, looked at photos and identified it as part of 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.
A number seen on the debris was identified Thursday as a component number from a Boeing 777, CNN reported.
MH370 is the only known missing Boeing 777.
Here is what we know about the missing plane and the newly discovered plane part:
1. ANALYSIS SHOWS OCEAN ROUTE WAS POSSIBLE
Assuming the wing debris turns out to be a first clue to the disappearance Flight 370, there's no guarantee that investigators can still find the plane's recorders or other remains more than a year later.
But investigative lead Martin Dolan, of Australia, told CNN in a live interview Thursday evening — Friday morning, just before 9:30 a.m., in Canberra, Australia - an analysis of currents indicates it's possible the debris was carried to the spot where it was found.
At the same time, Dolan said he was not yet ready to confirm the part came from MH-370.
French authorities moved the plane piece from the beach to the local airport on Reunion, en route to the city of Toulouse, where it was expected to arrive Saturday morning, according to officials in Paris.
Toulouse is the hub of Europe's aerospace industry, with the headquarters of Airbus and a network of hangars and plane facilities. The plane part was headed for special defense facilities used for airplane testing and analysis, according to the Defense Ministry.
2. COULD BARNACLES BE A CLUE?
Several reports say the barnacles that washed ashore with the part can reveal how long the aircraft had been submerged in water. Furthermore, the type of species on the part will also help identify the origin.
A Mirror report says the shellfish attached to the part belong to the Lepas Anatifera species, which resides in "temperate or warm waters, like the Indian Ocean."
3. DID THE PLANE CHANGE COURSE AND TURN SOUTH TO THE INDIAN OCEAN?
If it turns out to be part of the Malaysian plane, that 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 traveled north or landed somewhere after being hijacked.
4. WORKER WHO FOUND DEBRIS ALSO FOUND A SUITCASE
The discovery has changed the life of Reunion environmental worker Johnny Begue. He told The Associated Press that he stumbled across the plane part on Wednesday morning, 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 mystery of what happened to the Malaysian jet," Begue, 46, told The Associated Press.
He said he called several of his workmates 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.
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 Thursday 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.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
