place as to what might have caused the aircraft that part is from to crash. could it be an explosion? this is what the scientists are working on. thank you very much fred. and this morning, the families of 239 passengers and crew on mh-370 are reacting with caution and skepticism to officials who say they are increasingly confident that the flaperon is from the missing jet. after repeatedly having hopes raised and dashed some say they want 100% certainty the part came from mh-370. you know we lived for 16 months in the state of limbo with absolutely no concrete information. and in fact a lot of misdirection by the officials. we have become very suspicious of anything that can t be proven through a third party. let s bring in cnn s will
this is the aviation management. their resident expert michael kinney is joining us. what is the flaperon? the flaperon is located between these flaps. it is the flight surface that controls lift at low speeds and maneuver maneuverability of the aircraft. reporter: this data plate gives information about where this piece could have come from. it s gone. where could it have gone? anything will have a data plate that identifies part and serial number. it is held on by adhesive. if it was in a substance like water, it could wear off. reporter: you saw something that stood out to you about the damage. what is this on the flaperon? the component is held on by two actuators. on the pictures from reunion,
in france. is there any guess when this gets to france and how long it will take to figure out if this is indeed part of mh-370? reporter: good morning, alison. that is the big question here. it is the case of the office or lab where this will be analyzed. it will take special care this part is from a boeing 777. absolutely certain that they know from which 777 if it is from one. also they will try to find out or at least get some clues as to what might have caused the crash. what will happen is that the piece of debris or potential flaperon as you were saying is brought down here to the south of france. at this point in time the timeline says that part is supposed to leave reunion at the evening hours of tonight and arrive in france on saturday at some point and brought down here
of the volcano. there are cyclone warnings. people really have behind this. they hope they can actually help solve this. everyone we are speaking to thinking about the families. braving cyclones and volcanos. nima good luck to you and your crew. the flaperon found on the shore of the reunion island is now on the way to the office of the b.e.a. that is the office in charge of the civil aviation accidents. they are looking for any sign that this part came from mh-370. they are looking for anything that may help them find the rest of the plane. for more on, this let s bring in correspondent frederik pleitgen
communicated occasionally with malaysia airlines. others say they felt completely cut off. the chinese government has discouraged families to get together. public gatherings are discouraged in china. families are protesting to raise attention to their plight. the federal government has broken up the protests. they don t have a support center open in beijing. many feel they have to go through this without information coming to them. they hope that will change and official word. it hasn t happened yet. making an agonizing situation more difficult. will ripley, thanks. we should know if the flaperon is from mh-370 but we still don t know where the debris came from. tom foreman explains what evidence will float the ocean s surface and what is likely to on the ocean floor.