Flaperon washes up on Reunion Island

[PersonFromPorlock]

Potential finding in the Maldives
https://twitter.com/mohamedrajih13/s...86821492576260

However a follow up tweet from that user mentions it was found 45 days ago, and was thrown away!

Better pictures: HaveeruOnline - Maldives Police probe plane debris claims

Looks like a piece of laminate countertop with a rounded edge, and much decayed.

Edit: after seeing Phoenix's photos of the object, I don't think 'countertop' any more. Too much internal structure.

[_Phoenix]

It resembles a carbon composite panel:



Barnacles installed

same reference:
http://beforeitsnews.com/alternative...d-3196082.html

[unworry]

What is this post in reference ??? Is it the post immediately above yours or pages before?

Phoenix posted the picture (LHS) of the find in the Maldives, in response to tiger9's at the top of this page.

Here's a couple more angles:




-- This red text should quickly rule it in or out

[fun123]

This carbon fibre composite could be debris from an ocean race yacht.

[no-hoper]

Windsurfboard from "FANATIC".

http://www.surfstore.co.uk/images/al.../innegra15.jpg

[henry_crun]

Posted for no-hoper

[HeavyMetallist]

Masses of junk in the Indian Ocean

This is going to be a very, very long thread if every piece of composite material, plastic moulding, luggage, personal effects, or anything else vaguely resembling something associated with aviation, that washes up on a shore of the Indian Ocean is going to be photographed and minutely picked over here...

[gmorton]

Whilst 'every piece of rubbish' collected and examined from now on the beaches of IO islands may seem a laborious and seemingly time-wasting process it remains a more economic process than combing thousands of km's of seabed of IO- people want instant gratification however if in 6 months of combing through rubbish investigators find at least one more substantial piece of the plane or luggage then the end justifies the means.

[blakmax]

Simple test for junk on this occasion

The pictures clearly show a structure using aluminium honeycomb core. How many yacht structures or sports surf equipment use aluminium core?

Next, the core is still in place to some extent. This indicates a high level of corrosion resistance, and probably indicates PAA and primed core and this is typical of top end aircraft materials selection, but I am not sure of what was actually used on 777 aircraft. Even short term exposure in a galvanic combination of aluminium and carbon in a corrosive marine environment without high-end corrosion protection would see the core gone in a short time.

What puzzles me is the insert in the earlier posting (#444?) which shows a carbon skin with a nomex core (not aluminium). What the heck is that picture? It looks like a training aid picture, and probably has no relevance to the "junk". What next?

Regards

Blakmax

[rondun]

The windsurf board has a core of eps foam - ie polystyrene which wouldn't look much like the honeycomb structure in the photo.

Plus the red stencilled lettering "...IC" / "...TIC" doesn't really match with the Fanatic logo, and any surfboard / windsurfer would be more highly decorated and you would expect some of that still to be visible.

[no-hoper]

In the early 90's all kinds of honeycomb were used for hightech sailboards.
Cannot find any pictures in the net,but have seen and used and repaired them.

[HeavyMetallist]

Originally Posted by gmorton

Whilst 'every piece of rubbish' collected and examined from now on the beaches of IO islands may seem a laborious and seemingly time-wasting process it remains a more economic process than combing thousands of km's of seabed of IO- people want instant gratification however if in 6 months of combing through rubbish investigators find at least one more substantial piece of the plane or luggage then the end justifies the means.

Even if they were to recover a million pieces of trash and find maybe a dozen pieces originating from MH370, it's very unlikely that those random pieces would reveal anything except that MH370 crashed, in a location not inconsistent with the current search areas. The only real hope of solving this mystery is to locate the aircraft wreckage, tedious, time-consuming and expensive as that process is proving.

[_Phoenix]

Blakmax,

The pictures clearly show a structure using aluminium honeycomb core...What puzzles me is the insert in the earlier posting (#444?) which shows a carbon skin with a nomex core (not aluminium).

You see aluminum honeycomb core, I saw aramid paper honeycomb with phenolic resin, which is quite common for nacelles due to good resistance to temperature and lightning. It may be aluminum, better resolution would clarify...
In the images I attached in my previous post, I zoomed a possible lightning protection layer (if true then no doubt it's an aircraft debris) and a typical example of a carbon sandwich panel , carbon skins and aramid honeycomb core.

The picture below is a typical section of a nacelle panel (I do not know B777 sandwich composition),

reference
http://www.dexmet.com/1_pdf/LSP%20fo...20Aircraft.pdf

About size of this object, I estimate the object is measuring about 15in, any direction, based on the typical size of a cell of the honeycomb core of 1/8.

Cheers
Phoenix

[invaders]

Today the French airforce searched the sea around Reunion again. Nothing found. The plot thickens...

[G-CPTN]

Originally Posted by invaders

Today the French airforce searched the sea around Reunion again. Nothing found. The plot thickens...

Well, the flaperon was reported to have first appeared on Reunion in May, I believe.
It was obviously too large for the beachcomber to haul up and burn (as he is said to have done with seats etc.).

Wasn't it also suggested that the flaperon would have 'floated' vertically (with very little, if anything, above the surface)?

[Squawk7700]

This picture is probably better. It shows what looks like a flying surface, albiet a small one - on a small aircraft, think flap, aileron, or elevator. Almost seems too small for such a large aircraft.

[bia botal]

As far as I can tell, the Réunion flaperon is the only piece of debris discovered so far that has a reasonable probability of coming from the plane.

And that is most likely the only piece that will be found, why this piece and no others, well that could be due to its location on the aircraft and the rather large object directly in front of it, one can easily imagine a sequence of events that would see it detaching as the aircraft landed on the water, whilst other parts would stay attached as with the scully landing, if anything else was to wash up somewhere it would likely be the other flaperon, but that would be pure chance.

[darkroomsource]

Quote: "There is a theory that makes complete sense, but does not answer all the questions."

If it does not answer all the questions, then it doesn't make complete sense.

Whatever its virtues as a theory it is incomplete at best.

Having run through the entire first thread that sprang up once the aircraft went missing, and having no few of my posts deleted as the mods tried very hard to herd cats in that thread ... nobody has explained to me the course change after last radio contact in a way that permits the fire story to make sense .. no less complete sense.

Making sense does not mean it must answer all questions. E=MC^2 makes complete sense, but doesn't answer the question why.
Everything that happened on that flight could fit into the electrical fire theory, but without further information, that theory can't answer why the fire started, or why the pilots chose one direction over another after they finally knew about the problem.

As for the course change, if the pilots became aware of the issue, they very likely would have chosen an airport which was closer than their intended destination. If you follow the course from their initial deviation there is a rather large airport on that course. It would be reasonable to expect them to put that direction into the autopilot - expecting it to work, and/or turned to that direction and trimmed the plane to stay relatively straight and level.

There are very simple logical possibilities for what happened. But no-one can answer all the questions, like why did it happen, which is what the families want to know. And until why it happened is known, the families will refuse to believe the simple logical possibilities.

[cappt]

Malaysia has a team in route to inspect this debris found in the Maldives.
I would think a engineer or some familiar with the MH777 would recognize that stencil mark.

Malaysia to send team to Maldives to verify if debris found there came from a plane | Fox News


http://www.haveeru.com.mv/news/61424

[WingNut60]

And any investigation would be carried out by .....?

Excuse me if this has been asked and answered before but who would, in fact, be responsible to head up an investigation in the event that the Australian lead search did locate the aircraft? Australia?
Or any other nation for that matter.

It seems clear that since the most-likely search location fell inside the Australian SAR Zone that Australia would have responsibility to conduct a search.
This may or may not have precluded another nation from conducting it's own independent search in international waters. I don't know whether this is true or not.

But, having spent a squillion $, if the Australian search locates the aircraft, what happens then?
If (just as an example) the aircraft were to be located inside Australian waters then I would be fairly certain that the Australian ATSB would head up any enquiry.
However if it's found in the Australian (or French) SAR zone but in international waters, to which country does the responsibility for conducting an enquiry fall?