Officials Confirm Part Is From Missing Plane
SAVIDGE: French investigators made it official a piece of a plane that was found on an island in the Indian Ocean is from the Malaysia missing airline. The Paris prosecutor said that a part of the airplane wing that's called a flaperon found in July is from MH370. Shortly after the part was found, Malaysian officials also said they believed it was from the plane. I want to bring in Mary Schiavo. She is a CNN aviation analyst and a former inspector general at the U.S. Department of Transportation. After this part was found on the shore we had Malaysian officials weighing in. It took the French a number of weeks to finally come forward and apparently talked to Spanish investigators they were brought in. And they have now determined it is from the aircraft, which I think we all actually almost believed with certainty that they can say so now apparently through documents. Let me ask you this, Mary, I'm confused. Who is in charge of figuring out what happened to this plane?</s>MARY SCHIAVO, CNN AVIATION ANALYST: Martin, that is an excellent question because who is in charge is technically the Malaysian officials. They delegated the responsibility to search to Australians and people have been happy with their diligence and efforts. But when the part washed up on the shore of French territory then the French claimed they had authority to get into the investigation. They could have referred the part back and allow the investigation to remain with those already involved in the investigation. But they used the fact that there were four citizens on board to then take control of at least this part of the investigation. They do have the right to do that. But it also means there are way too many cooks in this stew.</s>SAVIDGE: It seems that way. Let's look at the flaperon itself. Does it give us any clues or tell us anything as to what may have happened?</s>SCHIAVO: Well, the answer is it can. I know it sounds a real legalese answer. It can. They did put the fiber optic inside the piece of the part and determined the serial numbers. That could have been done almost immediately. That equipment is on hand at almost every aviation crash investigation lab, but they finally confirmed that. At this point having confirmed it, now the really hard science can take over. They have a lot of places they can look for clues just on that small flaperon, the marine life to identify if it's possible what part of the Indian Ocean it really was in for so many months, for a year and a half. They can look at that part with now testing, they can look for any patterns of scratches or things that might have happened to it on its way down or in the crash sequence they can analyze it for explosives, fire, et cetera and they really will have to comb every square micron of it because it's all that they have.</s>SAVIDGE: The fact that the flaperon is the only piece we know of so far does that suggest to you any kind of scenario?</s>SCHIAVO: Well, it can. Again, I hate to hedge my words so carefully, but you know, because the flaperon is a part that could have become detached in the crash sequence as it was coming to earth, there could have been a lot of stresses put on it. And it had an air wings directive, a warning that the attachment points on this particular flaperon were weak. It was attached with an actuator assembly and in the United States, it had to be replaced. Those laws don't apply to Malaysia. It could have come off in that way. They will be able to analyze that better. Trailing edge was very beat up. That could have happened in the ocean and washing back and forth on the shore. The attachment points could give it a clue to see if it came off as it was crashing to the earth.</s>SAVIDGE: Some have suggested the fact that you have this relatively large piece, over 6 feet it was a soft landing on water not necessarily survivable. Do you buy into that?</s>SCHIAVO: Not necessarily, no. I think if they look and once they start doing this and remember the French investigations can be very slow, the BEA is well qualified, but some of their investigations take three years, ten years. The concord investigation took about ten years before it was finally went to court. So it can be a long haul, but the attachment points might be the clue as to what they find, if they can find anything left, any evidence left after this long in the water. And also if they are fortunate enough to find anything else amiss on that part any kind of residue at hall, pitting, burning, scorching that might help as well.</s>SAVIDGE: Mary Schiavo, I can talk to you all day about this. Unfortunately they won't let me. Thank you. We'll continue another time. Drama and suspense during the U.S. Open, we're talking about another flying object this time a drone that disrupts a tennis match. But would you believe this isn't the first time a drone got too close to a major sporting event?