Clashes with police amid MH370 plane debris search

Angry relatives of Chinese passengers aboard a Malaysia Airlines plane missing for more than a year clashed with police in Beijing as French officials extended the search for debris on remote Indian Ocean island beaches.

Investigators on the French-governed island of Reunion have collected a piece of wing that Malaysia has said came from Flight MH370, the first real clue in one of the greatest mysteries in aviation history.

MH370, a Boeing 777, disappeared on March 8, 2014, en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 passengers and crew on board, most of them Chinese.

The discovery of the piece of wing, known as a flaperon, on a Reunion beach was the first piece of direct evidence that the plane had crashed into the sea but distraught family members in China said they wanted clearer answers and have accused Malaysia of withholding information.

About 50 family members staged a noisy protest near the Malaysian embassy in Beijing and scuffled briefly with police who stopped them from entering a road leading to the embassy.

“Malaysia, find the passengers,” the protesters chanted. Some carried signs that said: “Malaysia hides the truth, Malaysia delays the search”. One woman whose daughter was on board demanded answers.

“I want to know what on earth happened to MH370. I want the government to provide something reliable, an adequate and convincing argument to convince us because it’s been more than 500 days,” she said.

Others pointed to discrepancies in information released by Malaysian and French authorities after the barnacle-covered piece of wing was flown to mainland France for investigation.

Malaysia said paint colour and a maintenance seal were matches for MH370, although French authorities have stopped short of declaring a definitive match.

Reunion is about 3,700 km (2,300 miles) west of the primary search area off the southwest coast of Australia and Malaysian Transport Minister Liow Tiong Lai said he would seek expert advice before asking Australia, which is leading the underwater search, to modify its efforts to find where the plane went down.

Investigators believe that someone may have deliberately switched off the aircraft’s transponder, diverted it off course over the Indian Ocean and deliberately crashed into the sea.