MALAYSIA-AIRLINES/REUNION-SEARCH France ramps up search for MH370 debris along Reunion coast

Record ID: 144739

  • Title: MALAYSIA-AIRLINES/REUNION-SEARCH France ramps up search for MH370 debris along Reunion coast
  • Date: 7th August 2015
  • Summary: ALONG SAINTE-MARIE AND SAINTE-ROSE COAST, REUNION ISLAND (AUGUST 7, 2015) (REUTERS) VARIOUS AERIAL VIEWS OF BOAT IN OCEAN VARIOUS OF AERIAL VIEW OF COAST SHADOW OF HELICOPTER IN THE WATER VARIOUS OF AEROPLANE IN SKY BOAT IN WATER SAINT-ANDRE, REUNION ISLAND (AUGUST 7, 2015) (REUTERS) FISHERMAN WALKING (SOUNDBITE) (French) FISHERMAN SAYING: "I saw a helicopter today and a p
  • Embargoed: 22nd August 2015 13:00
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  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVABY0EXPHWC91TFECXEHKD388HS
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: French officials extended the search for debris on remote Indian Ocean island beaches on Friday (August 7).
    The French decision to devote additional planes, helicopters, patrol boats to the area came as Malaysia appealed to Mauritius and Madagascar, near Reunion, to help widen the search.
    A helicopter and plane were already flying above the Reunion coast on Friday and a speedboat conducting searches in the water.
    "I saw a helicopter today and a plane. They were flying across the coast where I am," said a local fisherman.
    "It's tempting, but I will need a boat," he said when asked if he would have liked to join the search operations. "I hope that tomorrow, we will know better details so as to find information faster and especially to help the families in mourning."
    Investigators on the French-governed island of Reunion last week collected a piece of wing that Malaysia has said came from Flight MH370, the first real clue in one of the greatest mysteries in aviation history.
    France said it was ramping up its search along the coast of Reunion after additional debris, including a plane window and aluminium foil were found. But none of the new debris appeared to have come from MH370, a spokesman for Australian Deputy Prime Minister Warren Truss said.
    An initial search of a 60,000 sq km (23,000 sq miles) patch of sea floor has been extended to another 60,000 sq km.
    But additional search measures would require favourable weather conditions and availability of resources, an army official said.
    "Engaging a plane will first require technical and personnel availability and mainly weather conditions -- which we must observe that on a day like today, we don't have ideal conditions, even though it was a little better along the coast than over here -- and then it will require, as we say in military jargon, conduct, depending on what the plane sees and doesn't see," said Jacques Luthaud, Senior Commander of the French Army in the southern Indian Ocean zone.
    Reunion is about 3,700 km (2,300 miles) west of the primary search area off the southwest coast of Australia.
    Investigators believe that someone may have deliberately switched off the aircraft's transponder, diverted it off course over the Indian Ocean and deliberately crashed into the sea.
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