Plane wreckage can’t solve MH370 mystery: Australia

Australia says the recent discovery of plane debris on an island in the Indian Ocean, even if it belongs to the crashed Malaysia Airlines flight, MH370, will not solve the perplexing mystery of why the aircraft went down.

The two-meter-long debris from the ill-fated jet was found on a beach on the French island of La Reunion on Thursday.

Australian Deputy Prime Minister Warren Truss said on Friday that the plane debris, if it belongs to the missing jet, dispels some of the theories surrounding the disappearance, but it does not provide a great deal of help in determining the plane’s specific location.

"After 16 months, the vagaries of the currents, reverse modeling is almost impossible," Truss told reporters in Sydney. "And so I don't think it contributes a great deal in as far as our knowledge of where the aircraft is located at the present time."

The Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 vanished without a trace en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing last March with 239 people aboard.

The recovered object is now expected to be flown to a testing site for analysis in France on Saturday.

Meanwhile, Australian search authorities leading the hunt for the Boeing 777 aircraft in the Indian Ocean said they were confident the main debris field was in the current search area.

A possible mechanical or structural failure is among the primary speculated causes for the plane's disappearance, which has remained a mystery for 16 months.

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