PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - Possible Boeing 777 Part Found Off Mozambique
Old 3rd Mar 2016, 21:11
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deanm
 
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: Adelaide
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Good call, Bandy.
In another life, I used to be a State Govt. forensic scientist.
Paint matching is absolutely routine.
Examples include paint fragments recovered from a suspect's clothes with that from crime scene window frames or sills, paint particles identified in car collisions (with buildings, other vehicles, victims of hit-&-runs) etc.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Micro-spectrophotometry

Should be entirely possible.
Dean

(Of course, the flaperon and wing may have been painted at different times or locations, but the paint batches involved should be traceable - they would paint a whole bunch of flaperons at the same time with the same spectroscopically-identifiable batch)

Last edited by deanm; 3rd Mar 2016 at 21:29. Reason: Added detail
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