Originally Posted by
pattern_is_full
It's always reassuring to have one's theories confirmed by Avherald.
That said, I'm interested in their comment that the flap separated on climbout, for which Avherald don't offer any evidence. As far as I can judge from similar events, when a 747 foreflap lets go it's more likely to be with approach/landing flap deployed (China Airlines, Korean, Cathay, MyCargo) than on departure (Air NZ).
The FR24 tracks for the inbound (top) and outbound (bottom) flights are interesting:
The red circle indicates the approximate location that the foreflap in the photo was washed up.
This may be a silly question (but I'll ask it anyway) - just how visible are the 747 foreflaps on a pre-departure walkaround, with the flaps stowed ?