PETALING JAYA, Aug 7 — Efforts to find MH370 should be redoubled with the confirmation that the flaperon is from the missing aircraft, the National Union of Flight Attendants Malaysia (NUFAM) said.
Its president, Ismail Nasaruddin, welcomed the finding but cautioned against drawing a hasty conclusion.
“This is only the beginning, the tip of the iceberg. It is the first physical evidence we have had since the plane disappeared,” he said.
“But we can’t just take one part and say the mystery is solved. We need more chunks of the plane, more evidence and, most importantly, the black boxes.”
Ismail said the significance of matching the flaperon to MH370 was proof the plane had gone down in the Indian Ocean and nothing else.
He was in touch with the families of the flight attendants and said they were slightly sceptical as there had been inaccurate information on the planer before.
“It is still early. Yes, this means the plane went down. What the families want to know is where and how. Only that will provide the closure they need,” he said.
Ismail said the news was positive to some, but had not answered serious questions, adding that the families were very sensitive about the matter.
“Certainly, the announcement is that it belongs to MH370, but they are waiting until something more conclusive surfaces,” he said.
He said the families also asked why there was no initial debris field.
“An aircraft is made of thousands of parts. It’s strange that only now some have surfaced. This and other questions still haunt them.”
Ismail said previous aircraft disasters had turned up large sections of the aircraft intact.
“Take, for example, Air France in 2009. They found a large section of the tail and, ultimately, the black boxes. From that they determined what caused the plane to go down,” he said.
“We need to find the tail, landing gear and engines. These components usually survive a crash relatively intact. This would provide real clues as to what happened.”
