Other than that the enquiry is ongoing, and I rather suspect those that need to know the day to day findings coming out of the lab at Balma are well and truly in the loop.
Unfortunately the people who really want to be in the loop are the victims' families, and the continued uncertainty from the French side (regardless of the reason) is very tough on the family members.
In part we are again seeing the difference between an air crash investigation and a judicial investigation. In an air crash investigation, expected outcome is a "probable cause" as described in an Accident Report. However in a judicial investigation the expected outcome is to prove facts "beyond a reasonable doubt" in a Court of Law, a much higher legal standard.
Presumably various streams are continuing in parallel, jointly by the various teams:
- Work to positively identify the flaperon continues, mainly chasing, verifying and cross-validating all the paper trails in MAS and Boeing's manufacturing & maintenance supply chains. I doubt the French prosecutor will announce anything until they "dot every i and cross every t".
- In parallel, a huge amount of work is required to test / document / characterize the flaperon. This involves a ton of non-destructive x-rays, CT scanning, electron microscopy, ultrasonic inspection, swabbing for chemical residues, detailed observations and photography of any features, tap testing, etc. This alone may take weeks.
- That's before any real analysis can take place, which may involve further testing. Again, possibly weeks.
- At some point they may want to do some destructive investigation, e.g., cutting up parts of the flaperon to better understand the impact mode, etc. This may conflict with the legal evidentiary rules so again it will take time to sort out.
In short I don't think the flaperon will be going back to Malaysia anytime soon but I hope the identification work can be completed sooner rather than later.