Plane debris that might be from a Malaysia Airlines jetliner that disappeared without a trace last year will undergo testing by aviation experts beginning Wednesday.
The tests, which are scheduled to take place at a French military facility in Toulouse, France, are expected to determine whether a navigation device and a suitcase found in the western Indian Ocean came from Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 and offer clues to what forced the plane down on a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.
The debris – a plane part known as a flaperon and a damaged suitcase — was found July 29 off the French island of Reunion, just east of Madagascar, according to the Reuters news service.
The items are expected to arrive in Toulouse on Saturday.
No trace of Flight MH370 or its 239 passengers and crew were ever found despite months of searching by air, ship and underwater devices.
If the debris found July 29 does come from Flight MH370, a Boeing 777 airliner, it would be the first physical proof that the plane flew way off course before crashing into the ocean.
The final location of Flight MH370 has been a matter of considerable debate and conjecture since last March.
Family members of the passengers have been putting pressure on their governments in Malaysia and China to release more information on the results of several ongoing investigations of the tragedy.
But aviation experts first must determine whether the 6-8 foot piece of metal found off Reunion Island actually did come from Flight MH370.
A Malaysian aviation official said the part almost certainly came from a 777, and no similar planes have been reported missing.
Investigators say somebody on board the airliner manually turned off the plane’s electronic transponder before diverting it thousands of miles off course.
Most of the passengers were Chinese nationals.
The 600-employees of the Toulouse laboratory are considered experts in analyzing aviation accidents.
They will hopefully be able to determine it the debris came from a plane that exploded in midair or came from a plane that came apart after striking the ocean.
The damaged luggage that was recovered also was sent to France to be studied using DNA testing, Reuters said
