The Disappearing Act by Florence de Changy

Author:Florence de Changy [Changy, Florence de]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2020-12-24T09:47:59+00:00

Stencilling on both parts of debris provided investigators with evidence of the link. The font and colour of a number stencilled on the first part conforms to that developed and used by Malaysian Airlines. The second part contained the words ‘No Step’ with stencilling consistent with that used by Malaysian Airlines and a fastener attached to the part provided evidence linking the part to the aircraft’s production line.

But neither of these arguments should have been accepted. There were only so many aircraft stencilling types, and most airlines, as well as most military forces, used one or sometimes several of these. As for the fastener that was found attached to the part, it carried an identifying number that was consistent with, though not exclusive to, a Boeing 777, according to Jeff Wise’s post of 17 March 2016. No further evidence was produced to establish the ‘highly likely’ MH370 provenance of this piece of plane debris.

Boeing, which was part of the ‘rigorous analysis’, did not say a word, and nor did Malaysia Airlines produce a photo showing the same ‘No Step’ stencil on any other of its many Boeing 777-200ERs that would have proven beyond doubt that the piece found was genuine. As with everything in this story, it was kept vague.

Actually, just like the case of the flaperon, some of the hardcore MHists turned to MH17, as it was useful for research and comparison that the plane shot down over Ukraine four months later was exactly the same type of plane and from the same batch order as MH370. They took the trouble to look through the thousands of sometimes harrowing pictures of MH17 debris, in search of the equivalent piece to the one found in Mozambique with the inscription ‘No Step’ on it. And these pictures were found. But this time, instead of the researchers suspecting that it was actually a piece of MH17, the comparison served to show several notable differences between the two wing stabilisers of MH17 and the item picked up on the sandbank during Gibson’s expedition.4

Later in March 2016, so-called ‘Part Number 3’, an engine cowling with traces of the Rolls-Royce logo on it, was discovered in South Africa. Like the other parts found, it was also without barnacles, which many commentators found problematic until a picture of the same piece, taken several months before and this time covered with both sand and barnacles, surfaced in the South African press. The whole episode seemed bizarre. A ‘Part Number 4’, found in Mauritius in April, was later identified as an interior panel from the main cabin. In May, four more bits and pieces that looked like aircraft parts were collected in Mauritius and Mozambique. One of them was immediately dismissed, but the other three parts were considered by the investigators, both in Australia and in Malaysia, as ‘almost certain’ or ‘highly likely’ to be from MH370.

In early June 2016, Blaine Gibson went to Madagascar, where he teamed up with a French TV journalist and crew on Sainte-Marie Island.

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