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Could close examination by a metal specialist reveal a story about the stresses experienced by the piece and thus give some information of ditching vs high speed impact from high altitude...?
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Time Magazine quotes "American officials" as having a high degree of confidence about this -
MH370: Airline Debris Belongs to Same Model as Missing Malaysian Plane |
This update from Daily Mail (admittedly not the most reliable source) at 22:08 GMT
Experts have a 'high degree of confidence' that a piece of wreckage found washed up in the Indian Ocean belongs to a Boeing 777 - the same model as the doomed Malaysian Airlines plane which vanished without a trace last year. Air safety investigators have identified the two-metre long piece of debris as a 'flaperon' from the edge of a 777 wing, a US official has said. . |
If this is indeed from MH370, does this give more credibility to the story of a (much lighter) fire extinguisher from an aircraft being found on the Maldives not long after the disappearance?
With ocean currents, the debris field could indeed be quite large now that 17 months have passed, certainly large enough to include multiple archipelago's? |
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Picture 3 is interesting. The serial number is in the same format (AA/999) as the one number reported on this find.
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I suspect that we will rather quickly get a definitive answer from Boeing as to the provenance of this part. Given the number of minor changes that always take place during production, I wouldn't be at all surprised if they can, absent a serial number on the part, at least narrow this part down as coming from a range of line numbers.
Moreover, the condition of the part may yield some answers as to how the aircraft went down. NBC News in the US is definitively reporting this as a part from a 777. |
NBC is also quoting Boeing sources that they believe this is from 777 and therefore from MH370
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From a Wall Street Journal article, July 29, 2015 titled:
Plane Debris Consistent With Design of Missing Malaysia Jet subtitle: Officials caution it is too soon to determine whether piece is linked to Malaysia Airlines Plane Debris Consistent With Design of Missing Malaysia Jet - WSJ Photos of the debris quickly spread around Boeing's offices as engineers and mechanics who design and build the company’s wide-body jets sought to examine the new clues. Several Boeing employees who reviewed the images separate from the official probe said the debris was consistent with the curved shape of the flaperon, a control function on the wing of the 777. “This concave shape is indeed common to the 777 flap design,” said one longtime Boeing engineer. |
number format
WB203 is the line unit/plane that flaperon was destined for. BBXXX is likely the removable panel code location. That way when you reinstall it after maintenance or repair there is no question where it goes on the flaperon. There are multiple removable panels on the 777 flaperon.
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For those who know more about 777 flaperons, here's a video with several close-up shots of it:
MH370: Malaysia sends team to investigate debris on Réunion | World news | The Guardian |
Check out 06-30-00 pg. 222 then go to 06-44-00 pg. 234 and up for illistrations.
http://en.calameo.com/read/0003162864c5d46c7d25f Bb670 Seems to be a zone ID for a 777 wing. Thoughts? |
Heard on the radio from the French guy in France who was the first to see the photos, that it had some numbers BB and 3 digits. I think he said there was a 3 and a 7 in it.
Which I had to rethink (crackly radio), 3 and 7? |
It would be surprising if the officials in Reunion did not send measurements of the various dimensions along with the photos. Not to mention numerous gigabytes of high resolution close up photos.
Surely any engineer who has worked closely on a 777 flaperon can take one look at the photos and state if its origin is 777 or not? How difficult can it be? In an effort to exclude every other possibility, could the delay be due to Boeing trying to account for every flaperon they ever built? |
Originally Posted by lucille
(Post 9063046)
In an effort to exclude every other possibility, could the delay be due to Boeing trying to account for every flaperon they ever built?
2. Do you want to be the guy who publicly says 'that's from MH370', and then it turns out to be something else? Better to be sure than to be wrong, I'd say. |
FIG ITEM no.BB670 leads to Part number 115W2504-1, Effect FROM TO 008013/101999. It is a left hand wing flaperon.
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Boeing did state that protocol means that statements must come, not from them, but from the investigator. I have friends in Seattle who work for Boeing and it is clear the unofficial word in offices and on shop floor is that this is MH370
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New York Times
Debris May Have Come From Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, U.S. Investigators Say By AURELIEN BREEDEN and NICOLA CLARK JULY 29, 2015 PARIS — American investigators have concluded that a large object that washed up Wednesday on the shore of Réunion, a French island in the Indian Ocean, came from a Boeing 777, making it likely that it was debris from Flight 370, the Malaysia Airlines jetliner that disappeared in March 2014. A person with knowledge of the inquiry into what happened to the plane said that American government officials and experts from Boeing based their conclusion on photographs and videos. The investigators noted that no other Boeing 777 was known to be missing, suggesting that the piece was part of the missing aircraft. The person added that the Americans were waiting for French aviation experts to examine the object, and determine if it contained a serial number matching that of the Malaysia Airlines jet. ....................................................... Erik van Sebille, an oceanographer specializing in ocean currents who did extensive computer simulations last year of where Flight 370 wreckage might float, said that it was possible that pieces might now be reaching Réunion, more than 3,000 miles from the plane’s last known location. But the plane would have had to enter the water off northwestern Australia, he said. A series of separate analyses of the satellite “pings” coming from the aircraft’s engines in its last hours of flight have all pointed to its coming down off southwestern Australia, many hundreds of miles farther south — and that is where investigators from Australia, Malaysia and China have concentrated their search efforts. Currents in the Indian Ocean move fairly quickly from east to west near the Equator, Mr. van Sebille said, but those to the south move more slowly. Debris entering the ocean in the primary search area would be much less likely to have drifted as far as Réunion by now. Martin Dolan, the chief commissioner of the Australian Transport Safety Bureau, said in a telephone interview that “the drift models we have are that it is possible, not probable, that debris would wash ashore at Réunion.” Mr. van Sebille noted that even if the object found on the shore came from Flight 370, that did not mean that any other parts of the plane would be found nearby. “The way the ocean works is like a huge pinball machine,” and the plane’s wreckage “could be spread across an enormous area,” he said. http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/30/wo...=top-news&_r=0 |
As well as part numbers, themselves usually conclusive, the paint, when analysed would match the batch used on MH370 if the falperon came from that aircraft. The lack of barnacles maybe because they don't like composites as much as metal, any sailors out there?
The oceanographers now have a job ahead of them. |
Here is a plot I made from OSCAR. The Ocean Surface Current Analysis - Real Time data from National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
I had it average the period March 2014 until July 2015 for this area of the ocean. To my eye it does not seem that flotsam from the current search area could have made its way to Reunion, at least by a northern route. http://i919.photobucket.com/albums/a...lugg/ocean.jpg |
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