France is to conduct air, land and sea searches in and around the island of Reunion in the hope of finding more debris which could be linked to MH370.

 

Malaysia said on Thursday that a wing section found on the French Indian Ocean island definitely came from the doomed Malaysia Airline flight.

 

But investigators in France are yet to confirm the link, causing frustration among the families of victims.

 

France has also dismissed Malaysian claims that more debris has been found.

 

The Boeing 777 was travelling from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on 8 March 2014 when it vanished from radar. It had 239 people on board, most of them Chinese.

 

For a third day, relatives angered by mixed messages from the authorities and distrusting official announcements are staging a small protest outside Malaysia Airlines' offices in Beijing.

 

On one level, you could argue, it is simply a refusal to accept the obvious.

 

The evidence after all is strong; the satellite data shows the flight ended in the southern Indian Ocean and now the debris find - matching the sea current patterns - adds further corroboration.

 

But the unwillingness of many of the Chinese relatives to believe that conclusion is not as illogical as it sounds.

 

There are indeed real question marks over the way the Malaysian authorities have handled both the search for the plane and the release of information, marred by delay, confusion and apparent self-interest.

 

And here in China too, the families feel there is no-one they can trust. There are no independent media voices campaigning on their behalf or doggedly pursuing the truth.

 

Their own attempts to demand answers have been met with the usual control and harassment by plain-clothes policemen.

 

Bewildered and despairing, it is perhaps little wonder that some find comfort in the myriad conspiracy theories swirling online; that the plane might not be at the bottom of the ocean and that their loved ones might still be alive.

(BBC)