Malaysian, French investigators meet to coordinate probe on suspected MH370 wreckage

Police carry a piece of debris from an unidentified aircraft found in the east of the French Indian Ocean island of La Reunion, on July 29, 2015. [Photo/CFP]

PARIS - Investigators from France and Malaysia met Monday afternoon in the Palais de Justice to coordinate the investigation on the place wreckage found last Wednesday on Reunion Island, which may belong to the Boeing 777 plane of the missing MH370 flight.

The Malaysian investigators, headed by Malaysia Civil Aviation Director General Azharuddin Abdul Rahman and composed of representatives of the Malaysia Airlines and Malaysian judges, held talks with their French investigators for over two hours.

The meeting aimed to outline terms of judicial cooperation conducted under the aegis of the French justice, as the debris had been found on France's territory and four of its nationals were among the 239 victims aboard, according to media reports.

"Malaysia and France share the concern and anxiety of all the next-of-kin in determining the origin of the flaperon in hope of ending the 16-month painful wait for determinative news," Malaysia's civil aviation chief Azharuddin Abdul Rahman said in a statement after the meeting.

Experts believed that the wreckage came from the Boeing 777, arguing that the code "657 BB" appearing in the debris picture corresponds to a manual code in the aircraft.

Speaking to reporters, BEA ex-director Jean-Paul Troadec expressed caution over the analysis results. "We should not expect miracles from this analysis," he said.

The debris, found on Reunion Island on Wednesday last week is about 2-2.5 meters long, and will be checked by experts at the military-run General Directorate of Armaments (DGA) in Toulouse suburbs.

The flight, a Boeing 777-200, went missing en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8, 2014, with a total of 239 passengers on board, most of them Chinese nationals.