Originally Posted by Chronus
The curious thing about this find is that apparently the South African teenager, Liam Lotter who fished it out of the water when he was on his hols, packed it up in his suitcase and took it home. That was back in December. Now why would anyone do that.
If you were to take any particular item at random and then trace it's path back to manufacturer you would likely find a thousand unlikely coincidences that resulted in that particular item ending up where it is right now. It would seem almost preposterous that that particular item has ended up in your hands. If you go the other way though, trace from manufacturer to you, you would see that for that one item that made it to you there were millions that didn't.
The boy taking an interest in the part and taking it home with him only seems strange when viewed from the present and looking backward. If you consider that for the part to have made it to the news it must necessarily have traced a remarkable path it doesn't seem so strange. There are a million other aeroplane parts out in the ocean that have not been picked up and there may have been many that have been picked up by wandering teenagers and discarded as junk.