The Boeing 777 with 239 people on board went missing on March 8 last year while en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing and was minutes into its scheduled flight when it disappeared from civil radar.
Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak announced earlier today that the wreckage found on the French-administered island of
However, just a few hours later French prosecutor Serge Mackowiak suggested but would not confirm the wreckage was from the missing flight.Reunion was that of MH370.
"I think we can say that as of today there is a very strong supposition that the flaperon found on the beach of the island on the 29th of July actually does belong to the Boeing 777 of MH370, which disappeared on the 8th of March 2014," Mr Mackowiak said.
His careful language was at odds with the vehement assertions from Mr Razak, Malaysia Airlines, and other authorities who overnight "confirmed" the wreckage was from MH370.
Two New Zealanders were on the plane. They were Ximin Wang, of Auckland, and Paul Weeks, who lived in Perth but came from Canterbury.
The "supposition" was a setback for Sara Weeks.
"If he's got the same information as the Malaysian Prime Minister, then theoretically he should be able to stand there and say it belongs to MH370, end of story, because that's what the Malaysian Prime Minister said," she told NZME News Service this morning.
Ms Weeks aid her family had for some time guessed the wreckage was that of MH370, but needed unequivocal confirmation.
"Most likely it is. We're not bloody stupid. But you can't say that it absolutely is when one person's saying it could be but they don't know, they're still not sure."
But more importantly, she said the family still wanted to know how and why the plane went missing. She believed important questions would remain even if the French prosecutor confirmed the debris' origin, and more wreckage was recovered.
"I don't think it does anything for us at all. We've known it's been missing for 17 months. We know Paul's not with us. All of these people know their family members aren't there. Where are they? We actually want to know what happened.
"You can't get over something like this without understanding firstly, how can you lose a plane? How? I need that explained to me, because it's just absolutely ridiculous. And how can you not know where it went?" she asked.
Ms Weeks said getting answers to these questions would be the only way relatives of those on MH370 could get closure.
"You know what, I never liked flying anyway. But why would I want to hop on a plane if I know it can disappear?"
Asked if Malaysia Airlines had been in touch, Ms Weeks said: "Don't be ridiculous... I missed a phone call from a reporter saying that it had been confirmed as belonging to MH370. That's how I find everything out, and that's also how Danica finds out."
The plane's disappearance spawned numerous unconfirmed theories and a fruitless search for wreckage in the southeastern Indian Ocean which included New Zealand and Australian searchers.
On Tuesday, Malaysia asked authorities in islands surrounding Reunion to be vigilant for possible plane wreckage, as France confirmed the object washed up on the Indian Ocean isle was from a Boeing 777.
Transponders and fuselage have still not been found, which meant we did not "know for sure" if the wreckage was from MH370, Fox News reported.
Sea life growing on the flaperon, a wing section, could provide some clues as to the path the plane took during more than 500 days floating in the Indian Ocean, the Washington Post reported.
- By John Weekes of NZME News Service
