Answer is "maybe"

Each metal batch is close but not identical. Analysis of trace elements can be compared to fasteners coming from same batch - assuming a sister plane used them and one can be removed for comparison

I happen to be that photographer.

Here is a full resolution shot of the stab only.

http://s11.postimg.org/7ko677u2r/777_HS.jpg

P.S. No copying/distributing without my permission, thanks! Contact via PM if necessary.

Completely agree. If it would be an HL1023-6, an oversized used for repairs/reworks, that would be a "finger print" of an RNC that could be linked to a unique tail number.

re hi lok tracing
 

Sorry charlie - you need to understand how such fasteners are produced - stored and disbursed. They are ordered months/years in advance of use. They are produced and shipped perhaps on a monthly basis and put into ' temporary' storage by the boxfull. A given production shipment to Boeing of that same fastener could be split into two or three or four batches- at boeing that would be 737, 747, 767, 777 for example since some are used on every model- and part of the supplier production batch might be shipped to one of a " half" dozen suppliers just for Boeing. Other parts of that supplier production batch may well be shipped to St louis, lockheed, Airbus, etc.

But after splittting the " Boeing batch "and being sent to renton or everett or part of the batch being sent to a supplier(s) they are temporairly stored in the closest plant/assembly area before being daily put into ' nearby' to assembly rotobins- replenished at least daily or every other day dependinng on parts, assembly, production rates, etc. Some of the same fasteners in that rotobin ( for example at the ' bottom ' ) may well be three to six months old for a given model.

So a chem/sprectro analysis may well show ' family brother" fasteners of that size- batch on most any part of any plane going back from weeks to months just at Boeing- and possibly any other aerospace company in the world.
IOW- as I first stated, absent a unique flaw in that fastener or out of tolerance composition, tracing that fastener to a ' sister' ship has a VERY low but not quite ZERO probibility of being useful.:ugh:

Assuming this latest find is also from MH370, hard to imagine both bits ascended
from 15,000` or so depths. More likely these separated on impact with water. On such a premise there must be other debris afloat. What are the chances that just these two bits came off and the rest went down all in one piece. Perhaps time to call it a day, get heads out of the water, stick specs back on and start using eyeball MK1.

Further to my previous
 

with thanks to dn88 and the caveat "IF THIS IS FROM A 777"
after scaling to the 35 foot semi span of the HS, the recovered item appears to match a position immediately adjacent to the fuselage.

TR

Not sure of final paint process but is it possible to match the flaperon with this section via the paint?

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)

Couldn't we compare it to pics of the MH17?

Good zoom up here:

http://s52.radikal.ru/i138/1407/df/6f1e4e04c96f.jpg

and here:

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com...10390fb312.jpg

overview:

http://s019.radikal.ru/i641/1407/f6/4b8bb5407361.jpg


All these pictures originates from Jeroen Akkermans wealth of photograpic information on Flickr.

Snuggy - there seems to be a consensus emerging that Teddy & NiclasB have (in the words of another) 'nailed it' (if you are referring to the airframe location of the 'NO STEP' debris).

Dean

deanm

That might very well be the case. I just wanted to give new ideas into the mix.

The found part is apparently compared to an Ethiopian airframe - are we sure the markings are the same across all airframes? Same font?

Just wanted to show how a very definitively Malaysian B777 was marked. For future reference if nothing else.

Understood, Snuggy: without discussion of 'new ideas', we are stuck with only 'old ideas'!

Dean

The thread can reopen when there's some actual news

Rob