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Possible MH370 Wreckage Could Prove Crucial

Possible MH370 Wreckage Could Prove Crucial

The discovery of wreckage possibly from MH370 came late into the night in China, where most of the passengers were from.

Family members across China would only have absorbed the news as they woke up on Thursday morning.

There have been so many false alarms in this extraordinary search.

There was hope when sightings were made off Vietnam just hours after the plane disappeared in March last year. It turned out just to be sea debris.

We reported on investigators' belief that they had spotted debris in the Indian Ocean. Then the experts thought they had located pings from the plane's black boxes.

All were false alarms, made in good faith, but which only increased the agony for the families of the 239 on board MH370.

This find is undoubtedly the most significant in the search. If the debris is confirmed to be a part from a Boeing 777 then it's definitely from MH370 because no other B777 has crashed on water (only four have ever crashed with the loss of a hull and none in the Southern Hemisphere).

Assuming it is a part of MH370, its discovery will prove crucial in several ways both for families and for investigators.

:: Families

Families can finally begin to find closure in the knowledge, difficult as it is, that the plane did crash.

Some families we spoke to at the anniversary of the loss remained convinced of a conspiracy. These conspiracy theories - suggesting that the plane might have landed somewhere and still be intact - can be discarded.

Reunion Island could become a focal point for families who may need somewhere to go to mourn. Since the plane disappeared they have been in a limbo with no answers and no physical location at which to grieve.

:: Investigators

Detailed examination of the debris - the flaperon - could provide clues as to the cause of the crash.

Does the flaperon display any signs or remnants of an explosion? The plane's fuel is housed in the wings. The fact that the discovered wing part is intact would suggest there was no catastrophic mid-air explosion destroying the plane.

If there was no explosion mid-air, did the plane land intact on the water? Or did it run out of fuel and plummet into the water? Analysis of the discovered flaperon could help investigators answer some of these key questions.

The location of the discovery, on Reunion Island, will allow investigators to develop their mapping of the probable movements of the plane.

They already have a 'southern corridor' through the Indian Ocean where they believed the plane flew. But where did it make contact with the water?

The new discovery, coupled with further analysis of ocean currents, could narrow down their search for the rest of the plane and crucially the black boxes which will reveal the precise cause of the crash.

With the help of marine biologists, investigators can study the barnacles stuck to the flaperon.

This will allow them to determine how long the debris has been in the water and perhaps give them an idea of where, geographically, it floated because some barnacles are specific to certain waters.