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They chilled out for a few months, peacefully cruising over 2,000 miles in the general direction of Africa. And then the object hit a beach. A lot of barnacles were probably killed that day. Their little world had ended; but that wasn't the biggest story. Not to the islanders who discovered the hollow lump of aluminum, and realized what they'd found—and more importantly, where it may have come from.French experts have identified that lonely barnacle-encrusted fragment as a "flaperon," a control flap from the wing of a Boeing 777. It's still under intense investigation in Toulouse, but since there's only one missing 777 we know of, it's almost certainly from Flight MH370, the aircraft that disappeared without trace 16 months ago, and was assumed on the basis of rogue communication pings to have been swallowed up by the Indian Ocean.Out of more than 200,000 kilograms of aluminum, plastic, fuel, electronics, luggage, flesh, and blood; in spite of $150 million spent deploying the most advanced technology we have for month after month after month; it is the only single shred of the aircraft that has so far been recovered. Predictably, it's driving everyone a bit mad.The calmest people are the air crash investigators working in the laboratories of the Bureau d'Enquêtes et d'Analyses in France—since the debris washed up on La Réunion, a French territory, they take the lead in the investigation. That's a big stroke of luck, since France has a lot more expertise than, say, nearby Madagascar. They were quick to say that it's very likely the part comes from MH370, but continue to work to rule out any other possibility, however remote.On Motherboard: Hell on High Seas
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