investigators in france have just called a news conference which, by the way, is set to begin any minute now and we ll take there you live momentarily that we expect will officially confirm that the debris is in fact part of the plane s wing and the very first discovery in this mysterious disappearance. just to go back for a moment. this plane part in question washed up on this island. this is off the coast. you have africa off the coast of africa madagascar and a tiny island off of madagascar is reunion island. it was quickly confirmed as a flaperon belonging to a boeing 777, the very same model aircraft that was flight 370. that plane that vanished without a trace nearly 17 months ago now with 239 people on board. cnn s simon mosten is standing by live outside of the press conference in france and we have cnn s will ripley in beijing on
to mh-370 and not just because the flaperon washed up ashore on the island and because they are a close-knit community and they are family oriented and just the the idea that a plane could completely disappear, that loved ones could simply vanish. it s shocking to them and they want to help but you know i was speaking to the head of one of these search efforts be and she said to me you know the sea operates on its own timetable and it s up to us she said to be vigilant. all right. erin mclaughlin, thank you so much and reunion island off of mad gas car and here in new york brian alexander and richard quest. and richard, first to you. i mean it s huge that they have been able to say, yes, this was a piece of this plane that had vanished some 15, 16 months ago, but the real question is what next and where are the other pieces of the plane and and what happened? i m guessing listening others talking, that what
shot and quest and i looked up at each other at the same time and this was perhaps lost in translation and we have someone proficient in french we heard one thing from the malaysian prime minister saying conclusively mh-370 here he said very strong supposition that the flaperon belonged to this plane. what do you think? and i think it s at one level it s semantics because i don t think anybody who who has looked at this for a moment doesn t believe this is from mh-370 both on supposition grounds and process of deduction and elimination but the families want certainty. families are so forefront for me as i m listening to them. the families are not going to be content with a very strong supposition. of course they are not. you and i may be and most of our viewers because common sense tells us. you were hang on to a thread
french investigator appeared for a different news conference this one in paris, parsing his words a tad more calling it a strong supposition that this wing part in a nearby suitcase does indeed belong to the plane that vanished without a trace 17 months ago. there s a very strong supposition that the flaperon found on the beach of the island of reunion on the 29th of july actually does belong to the boeing 777 of flight mh $-370. the boeing design experts confirmed. the flaperon was for technical reasons quite obviously a boeing 777 flaperon and secondly the representatives of the company of the malaysian airlines company informed us of elements
game stopper so i think they want to find things consistent with the idea that s been in the water for 500 days and came from the western coast of australia and even pollen is a great indicator. we ll know soon enough as investigators tear into that piece. david, thank you so much. i m hearing we ve got news out of beijing with our correspondent there will ripley. i ve heard you got some information. what are you learning? hey, brooke i just received the message and text message which may have received it if they have their phones turned off and obviously the middle of the night here but i want to read portions of it for you and it came in before the malaysian prime minister made his announcement dear sir or madam, there s a major announcement on the major findings of the flaperon that was indeed from mh-370 and then it would be broadcast on all major and tv