Story highlights
- Les Abend: It would be a relief if debris found off La Reunion island is flaperon of missing MH-370; but reports have been wrong before
- Based on pictures, flaperon looks too wide for 777, he says; but if that's what it is, then it belongs to MH370
Les Abend is a Boeing 777 captain for a major airline with 30 years of flying experience. He is also a CNN aviation analyst and senior contributor to Flying magazine. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the author.
(CNN)Nothing would be more poignantly encouraging for 239 families than to know that the piece of aircraft part found on La Reunion Island east of Madagascar connects with MH370 -- the Boeing 777 that disappeared in March 2014, en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. The world wants to know. And as a 777 pilot, I want to know.
But let's all take a deep breath and stand by until we have absolute confirmation. Remember, the information provided at this outset of the tragic event was sometimes wrong.
Les Abend
What happened to MH370 is still very much under active investigation. It's important that we allow the Malaysian accident investigation team to scrutinize the airframe debris piece. After all, the airplane belongs to its country. Regardless, when the French BEA (Bureau d'Enquêtes et d'Analyses) -- the French government agency in charge of investigating aviation accidents -- arrives on scene at La Reunion Island, a French department in the western Indian Ocean where debris was found in the water, I have no doubt that they will quickly have an answer. The BEA is a well-respected organization.
As for the airframe part itself: My initial gut reaction was skeptical. Why? From the photographs, the piece looked too bulky to have been attached to a 777 wing. In addition, it appeared too wide if it was being considered a flaperon.
What is a flaperon exactly? It is a combination of flap and aileron. Flaps are the trailing edge surface on the wing that is extended for landing. Flaps increase the curvature of the wing, providing more lift at slower speeds in addition to creating drag to slow the airplane.
Photos: The search for MH370
Two years after Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 went missing, a relative of one of the passengers burns incense in Beijing on March 8, 2016. Flight 370 vanished on March 8, 2014, as it flew from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to Beijing. There were 239 people on board.
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Photos: The search for MH370
On July 29, police carry a piece of debris on Reunion Island, a French territory in the Indian Ocean. A week later, authorities confirmed that the debris was from the missing flight.
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Photos: The search for MH370
Staff members with the Australian Transport Safety Bureau examine a piece of aircraft debris at their laboratory in Canberra, Australia, on July 20. The flap was found in June by residents on Pemba Island off the coast of Tanzania, and officials had said it was highly likely to have come from Flight 370. Experts at the Australian Transport Safety Bureau, which is heading up the search for the plane, confirmed that the part was indeed from the missing aircraft.
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Photos: The search for MH370
In late February, American tourist Blaine Gibson found a piece of plane debris off Mozambique, a discovery that renewed hope of solving the mystery of the missing flight. The piece measured 35 inches by 22 inches. A U.S. official said it was likely the wreckage came from a Boeing 777, which MH370 was.
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Photos: The search for MH370
Relatives of the flight's passengers console each other outside the Malaysia Airlines office in Subang, Malaysia, on February 12, 2015. Protesters had demanded that the airline withdraw the statement that all 239 people aboard the plane were dead.
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Photos: The search for MH370
A police officer watches a couple cry outside the airline's office building in Beijing after officials refused to meet with them on June 11, 2014. The couple's son was on the plane.
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Photos: The search for MH370
Members of the media scramble to speak with Azharuddin Abdul Rahman, director general of Malaysia's Civil Aviation Department, at a hotel in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on May 27, 2014. Data from communications between satellites and the missing flight was released the day before, more than two months after relatives of passengers said they requested it be made public.
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Photos: The search for MH370
Operators aboard the Australian ship Ocean Shield move Bluefin-21, the U.S. Navy's autonomous underwater vehicle, into position to search for the jet on April 14, 2014.
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Photos: The search for MH370
A member of the Royal New Zealand Air Force looks out of a window while searching for debris off the coast of western Australia on April 13, 2014.
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Photos: The search for MH370
The HMS Echo, a vessel with the British Roya; Navy, moves through the waters of the southern Indian Ocean on April 12, 2014.
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Photos: The search for MH370
A Royal Australian Air Force AP-3C Orion, on a mission to drop sonar buoys to assist in the search, flies past the Australian vessel Ocean Shield on April 9, 2014.
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Photos: The search for MH370
A relative of a missing passenger cries at a vigil in Beijing on April 8, 2014.
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Photos: The search for MH370
Australian Defense Force divers scan the water for debris in the southern Indian Ocean on April 7, 2014.
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Photos: The search for MH370
A towed pinger locator is readied to be deployed off the deck of the Australian vessel Ocean Shield on April 7, 2014.
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Photos: The search for MH370
A member of the Royal New Zealand Air Force looks at a flare in the Indian Ocean during search operations on April 4, 2014.
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Photos: The search for MH370
On March 30, 2014, a woman in Kuala Lumpur prepares for an event in honor of those aboard Flight 370.
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Photos: The search for MH370
The sole representative for the families of Flight 370 passengers leaves a conference at a Beijing hotel on March 28, 2014, after other relatives left en masse to protest the Malaysian government's response to their questions.
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Photos: The search for MH370
A member of the Royal Australian Air Force is silhouetted against the southern Indian Ocean during the search for the missing jet on March 27, 2014.
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Photos: The search for MH370
Flight Lt. Jayson Nichols looks at a map aboard a Royal Australian Air Force aircraft during a search on March 27, 2014.
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Photos: The search for MH370
People in Kuala Lumpur light candles during a ceremony held for the missing flight's passengers on March 27, 2014.
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Photos: The search for MH370
Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, center, delivers a statement about the flight on March 24, 2014. Razak's announcement came after the airline sent a text message to relatives saying it "deeply regrets that we have to assume beyond any reasonable doubt that MH 370 has been lost and that none of those onboard survived."
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Photos: The search for MH370
Grieving relatives of missing passengers leave a hotel in Beijing on March 24, 2014.
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Photos: The search for MH370
A passenger views a weather map in the departures terminal of Kuala Lumpur International Airport on March 22, 2014.
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Photos: The search for MH370
A Chinese satellite captured this image, released on March 22, 2014, of a floating object in the Indian Ocean, according to China's State Administration of Science. It was a possible lead in the search for the missing plane. Surveillance planes were looking for two objects spotted by satellite imagery in remote, treacherous waters more than 1,400 miles from the west coast of Australia.
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Photos: The search for MH370
Satellite imagery provided by the Australian Maritime Safety Authority on March 20, 2014, showed debris in the southern Indian Ocean that could have been from Flight 370. The announcement by Australian officials raised hopes of a breakthrough in the frustrating search.
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Photos: The search for MH370
Another satellite shot provided by the Australian Maritime Safety Authority shows possible debris from the flight.
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Photos: The search for MH370
A distraught relative of a missing passenger breaks down while talking to reporters at Kuala Lumpur International Airport on March 19, 2014.
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Photos: The search for MH370
On March 18, 2014, a relative of a missing passenger tells reporters in Beijing about a hunger strike to protest authorities' handling of information about the missing jet.
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Photos: The search for MH370
U.S. Navy crew members assist in search-and-rescue operations in the Indian Ocean on March 16, 2014.
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Photos: The search for MH370
Members of the Chinese navy continue search operations on March 13, 2014. After starting in the sea between Malaysia and Vietnam, the plane's last confirmed location, search efforts expanded west into the Indian Ocean.
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Photos: The search for MH370
A Vietnamese military official looks out an aircraft window during search operations March 13, 2014.
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Photos: The search for MH370
Malaysian air force members look for debris near Kuala Lumpur on March 13, 2014.
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Photos: The search for MH370
Relatives of missing passengers wait for the latest news at a hotel in Beijing on March 12, 2014.
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Photos: The search for MH370
A member of the Vietnamese air force checks a map while searching for the missing plane on March 11, 2014.
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Photos: The search for MH370
A Vietnamese air force plane found traces of oil that authorities had suspected to be from the missing Malaysia Airlines plane, the Vietnamese government online newspaper reported on March 8, 2014. However, a sample from the slick showed it was bunker oil, typically used to power large cargo ships, Malaysia's state news agency, Bernama, reported on March 10, 2014.
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Photos: The search for MH370
A U.S. Navy Seahawk helicopter lands aboard the USS Pinckney to change crews on March 9, 2014, before returning to search for the missing plane in the Gulf of Thailand.
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Photos: The search for MH370
Buddhist monks at Kuala Lumpur International Airport offer a special prayer for the missing passengers on March 9, 2014.
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Photos: The search for MH370
Members of a Chinese emergency response team board a rescue vessel at the port of Sanya in China's Hainan province on March 9, 2014.
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Photos: The search for MH370
The rescue vessel sets out from Sanya in the South China Sea on March 9, 2014.
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Photos: The search for MH370
Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, center, arrives to meet family members of missing passengers at the reception center at Kuala Lumpur International Airport on March 8, 2014.
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Photos: The search for MH370
A relative of two missing passengers reacts at their home in Kuala Lumpur on March 8, 2014.
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Photos: The search for MH370
Chinese police at the Beijing airport stand beside the arrival board showing delayed Flight 370 in red on March 8, 2014.
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Photos: The search for MH370
Malaysia Airlines Group CEO Ahmad Juahari Yahya, front, speaks during a news conference at a hotel in Sepang on March 8, 2014. "We deeply regret that we have lost all contacts" with the jet, he said.
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Ailerons, (also located at the trailing edge of the wing), bank the airplane and assist in a turn. Each side of the 777 wing has two sets of ailerons, the longest being at the outboard edge and the shortest being toward the inboard edge. The inboard aileron is also a flap, and thus called a flaperon. The flaperon automatically extends with the other flaps during approach and landing.
The reason for two sets of ailerons is that at slower speeds additional control surfaces aid in maneuvering the 200-foot wingspan. At higher speeds additional control surfaces becomes overkill, so the outboard ailerons have limited movement, leaving only the flaperons to bank the airplane.
There is still no way to know for sure why Flight MH370 ended, but we are learning more about the lives of those on board. CNN is remembering them through snapshots shared with us.
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Rodney and Mary Burrows were looking forward to becoming first-time grandparents after their return home to Australia.
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Australians Catherine and Robert Lawton were traveling with friends on vacation when the flight disappeared.
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Paul Weeks was traveling to Mongolia for a new job as an engineer. His wife says Paul left behind his watch and his wedding ring before the trip, in case anything happened to him while he was away. Anderson spoke with Paul's brother & sister who said they are coping by spending time together as a family.
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Chandrika Sharma, left, was on Flight 370; her daughter Meghna and husband K.S. Narendran wait patiently, trying to manage their anxiety and longing for her return.
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Muktesh Mukherjee and Xiaomo Bai had been vacationing in Vietnam and were on their way home to their two young sons in Beijing.
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76-year-old Liu Rusheng, an accomplished calligrapher and one of the oldest passengers on the flight, was in Malaysia to attend an art exhibition with his wife.
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Teens Hadrien Wattrelos and Zhao Yan are shown in a photo on Wattrelos' Facebook page. The photo is captioned, simply, "I love you," in French.
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Firman Chandra Siregar, 24, studied electrical engineering in Indonesia and was on his way to Beijing on board Flight 370 to start a new job at an oil company.
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Patrick Francis Gomes, center, was the in-flight supervisor for the missing plane. His daughter describes him as a quiet person with a sense of humor.
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Ch'ng Mei Ling, a Malaysian citizen who lives in Pennsylvania, is a process engineer at a chemical company.
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We do not have photos of all 239 passengers, but we wanted to remember that there are loved ones around the world missing them right now. View CNN's complete coverage of Flight 370.
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If the piece of airframe debris just discovered is indeed a flaperon unique to a 777, then it simply belongs to MH 370. Why? Because there have only been two significant 777 accidents in the airplane's 21-year history, and none of them have been over water. That's not to say the accident investigation team shouldn't maintain due diligence and match part and component numbers with appropriate records.
Source: Plane debris matches 777 part in initial review 01:25
Although the flaperon would be a tremendous discovery, it would also be only a small piece of the accident investigation jigsaw puzzle. This piece of the puzzle would at least dispel the conspiracy theory suggesting the airplane was flown to a remote terrorist-friendly nation. Examination could reveal some clues as to impact speed and/or impact angle with the water, but it would not be a complete picture. Finding more debris would be helpful to corroborate such things.
Finding debris that is related to MH370 would be a validation of the Immarsat data and the flight path trajectory assumptions that the investigation team has used to define the search area. A discovery would certainly be a morale booster for the search crews, affirming that their mission is not in vain.
In addition, the world's interest has been re-energized. With renewed interest, perhaps funding will continue from current sources for the immediate future.
Regardless, let's all have some patience, as hard as this might be for the passengers' loved ones. The investigation will continue in a methodical process. Even though initial evidence points to the debris on Reunion Island as being a piece of MH370, it should be absolutely confirmed so there is no doubt.
Stand-by for now.
