page_title: Malaysia Airlines Flight 370
section_title: Flaperon
hierarchical_section_title: Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 / Marine debris / Flaperon
caption_attribution_description: English: The Indian Ocean Gyre, a clockwise-swirling vortex of ocean currents in the Indian Ocean
context_page_description: Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 was a scheduled international passenger flight operated by Malaysia Airlines that disappeared on 8 March 2014 while flying from Kuala Lumpur International Airport to its planned destination, Beijing Capital International Airport. The crew of the Boeing 777-200ER aircraft last communicated with air traffic control around 38 minutes after takeoff when the flight was over the South China Sea. The aircraft was lost from ATC radar screens minutes later but was tracked by military radar for another hour, deviating westwards from its planned flight path, crossing the Malay Peninsula and Andaman Sea. It left radar range 200 nautical miles northwest of Penang Island in northwestern Peninsular Malaysia. With all 227 passengers and 12 crew aboard presumed dead, the disappearance of Flight 370 was the deadliest incident involving a Boeing 777 and the deadliest in Malaysia Airlines' history until it was surpassed in both regards by Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, which was shot down while flying over conflict-stricken eastern Ukraine four months later.
context_section_description: The first item of debris to be positively identified as originating from Flight 370 was the starboard flaperon (a trailing edge control surface). It was discovered in late July 2015 on a beach in Saint-André, Réunion, an island in the western Indian Ocean, about 4,000 km (2,200 nmi; 2,500 mi) west of the underwater search area. The item was transported from Réunion (an overseas department of France) to Toulouse, where it was examined by France's civil aviation accident investigation agency, the Bureau d'Enquêtes et d'Analyses pour la Sécurité de l'Aviation Civile (BEA), and a French defence ministry laboratory. Malaysia sent its own investigators to both Réunion and Toulouse. On 3 September, French officials announced that serial numbers found on internal components of the flaperon linked it "with certainty" to Flight 370. These serial numbers were retrieved using a borescope.
  After the discovery, French police conducted a search of the waters around Réunion for additional debris, and found a damaged suitcase that might  be linked to Flight 370. The location of the discovery was consistent with models of debris dispersal 16 months after an origin in the current search area off the west coast of Australia. A Chinese water bottle and an Indonesian cleaning product were also found in the same area.
  In August 2015, France carried out an aerial search for possible marine debris around the island, covering an area of 120 by 40 km (75 by 25 mi) along the east coast of Réunion. Foot patrols were also planned to search for debris along the beaches. Malaysia asked authorities in neighbouring states to be on the alert for marine debris that might have come from an aircraft. On 14 August, it was announced that no debris that could be traced to Flight 370 had been found at sea off Réunion, but that some items had been found on land. Air and sea searches for debris ended on 17 August.
caption: Currents within the Indian Ocean
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