The Case of the MH370 Wing Segment Keeps Getting Weirder

374,351

35

Maddie Stone

Filed to: MH370 8/29/15 2:00pm

When a wing section of a Boeing 777 washed up on the Indian Ocean island of La Réunion last month, the Malaysian government quickly ascribed the part to missing Malaysian Airlines Flight 370. But an ongoing investigation has failed to verify this claim, and the story just keeps getting weirder.

Shortly after the flaperon washed up, Boeing engineers confirmed that the wing segment belongs to a 777. And MH370, which went missing in March of 2014, is the only 777 unaccounted for. So case closed, right?

Malaysian prime minister Najib Razak decided it was, and on August 5th, he released a statement announcing as much to the world. But minutes later, French investigator Serge Mackowiak countered the prime minister’s remarks, saying that more tests were needed to conclusively determine the wing segment’s origin. Those test results were supposed to come within a day. Then a few days. Now it’s been several weeks.

What’s the hangup? According to New York Magazine, the ID plate that should have been attached to the inboard edge of the flaperon is missing. This plate, affixed to all 777 flaperons, ought to contain a serial number linking the part to MH370. Its absence has not only stymied the investigation, it’s causing other strange facets of the wing segment to come under scrutiny.

For instance, the flaperon was covered in barnacles, sessile marine organisms that thrive underwater by affixing themselves to floating objects. As New York Magazine explains, barnacles would seem to suggest the wing segment spent the last several months suspended beneath the ocean surface. Which is curious, to say the least:

While it’s easy to imagine a submarine or a scuba diver hovering peacefully 10 or 20 feet under the surface of the water, this is not something that inanimate objects are capable of doing on their own: Either they are more buoyant than water, in which case they float, or they are less buoyant, in which case they sink.

So, how could a six-foot-long chunk of airplane remain suspended beneath the ocean surface for a long period of time? At this point, there aren’t any simple, common-sense answers; the range of possible explanations at this point runs from as-yet-unidentified natural processes to purposeful intervention by conspirators.

There’s certainly a logical explanation for all of this, and we’ll get there eventually — perhaps we’ll even learn a thing or two about barnacle ecology in the process! In the meanwhile, the sleuths of the internet are sure to come up with all sorts of outlandish origin stories for the untagged flaperon. And the fate of flight MH370 remains as mysterious as ever.

end quote from:

The Case of the MH370 Wing Segment Keeps Getting Weirder

It is my experience that truth is always much stranger than fiction except when people try to cover things up and make them all homogenized. Is this the right flaperon? 

Who knows? 

It could have been planted by anyone but where is the plate that marks that particular piece? However, a flaperon is many different parts combined too. So, don't those part numbers matter too because likely those plaques are still there. 

Or is the only one assigned the whole flaperon part number and not just all the pieces of the flaperon? But, wouldn't that be registered somewhere too on a computer somewhere? This doesn't make any sense at all. Also, aren't part numbers stamped rather than on riveted plaques? Plaques could fall off but stamped characters are there until the whole part rusts away? However, if this is made of Aluminum or Titanium or plastic or likely a combination of different substances that would make a difference too.

This whole thing doesn't smell right at this point.