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1st LD: Malaysia says confirmation on MH370 debris not contradict French announcement

Xinhua, August 6, 2015 Adjust font size:

Malaysia's confirmation that the debris found on the Reunion Island belongs to flight MH370 is concordant with the findings announced by the French side despite a prosecutor in Paris only put it as"very likely,"Transport Minister Liow Tiong Lai said on Thursday. "I have to emphasis here that it's a very cautious judgement, which was based on the opinions from our technicians and experts," Liow told Xinhua.

He said the maintenance seal found on the flapron matches the record of Malaysia Airlines as well as the color of the wing part.

The evidences on the technical level and the circumstances all pointed to the fact that the debris belongs to MH370, he added.

Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak said early Thursday that verification has confirmed that the flaperon washed ashore on the Reunion Island belongs to MH370, 515 days after the plane disappeared en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8, 2014 with 239 people on board, most of them Chinese.

However, a press conference later in Paris has stopped short of echoing Malaysia's announcement, when Deputy Paris prosecutor Serge Mackowiak avoided being too assertive in saying experts have "very strong presumption" that the debris comes from the missing Malaysian jetliner.

Liow said Malaysia respects French decision for further verification."We believed that this is not contradictory to Malaysia's announcement, the two are concurrent."

He said more debris had been collected on the Reunion Island, and were handed over to the French authorities for further investigation. Endi