Wing Flap from Missing MH370 Identified
The flap section was found June 20, 2016, on the island of Pemba, off the coast of Tanzania. The Malaysian government asked ATSB to determine whether the flap section came from the MH370 aircraft, and ATSB did so by using part numbers and a date stamp.
A piece of debris from the missing MH370 aircraft has been identified by the Australian Transport Safety Bureau, that agency announced Sept. 15. It posted a photo of the item, identifying it as an outboard flap from the Boeing 777-200ER plane that went missing on March 8, 2014, disappearing from air traffic control radar after taking off from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on a flight to Beijing with 227 passengers and 12 crew members on board.
The flap section was found June 20, 2016, on the island of Pemba, off the coast of Tanzania. The Malaysian government asked ATSB to determine whether the flap section came from the MH370 aircraft, and ATSB did so by using part numbers and a date stamp associated with one of the part numbers that indicated it was manufactured Jan. 23, 2002, which is consistent with the May 31, 2002, delivery date for the plane.
All of the identification stamps had an "OL" number and a Boeing part number that were unique identifiers relating to the flap's construction, and the Italian part manufacturer recovered records for the numbers located on the part and confirmed that all of the numbers related to the same serial number outboard flap that was shipped to Boeing for this aircraft, according to ATSB.