A new highly detailed forensic paper has confirmed two pieces of debris are almost certainly from MH370.

The paper authored by UK aerospace engineer Richard Godfrey and debris hunter Blaine Gibson explores the complex lightning protection on aircraft to positively identify the debris as from a Boeing 777.

The 777 while an aluminium aircraft, extensive use was made of composite structure in non-structural areas such as flaps, elevators, and engine cowlings. That composure structure required a metal mesh for Lightning Strike Protection (LSP).

The first item of possible MH370 debris (pictured above) was found in Madagascar in 2017 by a local fisherman named Tataly. The item is made of composite materials with a honeycomb core and an aluminium wire mesh LSP layer.

The second item (below) was found in Madagascar in 2019 and had washed ashore in 2016 or 2017. It has a similar construction as the “Tataly” debris item. A distinctive feature of the debris is the remnant of a circular marking, which has been partly broken off. This piece became known as the “BrokenO”.

You can read the report here;

The authors state that "extensive use of LSP was made on the Boeing 777 aircraft. This is a common feature on several floating debris items which have been recovered from around the Indian Ocean. Some of these items have been confirmed or are almost certainly from MH370. Apart from the test by BEA in France on the Aluminium Substrate of the flaperon, there were no specific tests of the LSP on floating debris items either by the ATSB in Australia or by the MOT in Malaysia. Since MH370 is the only Boeing 777 aircraft to have crashed in the Indian Ocean, there is a striking commonality not only from the match to the drift analysis, but also from the LSP evidence.

"The Malaysian Safety Investigation Report concludes in several debris analyses that “from the location where the debris was found, and being consistent with the drift path modelling for debris from an aircraft ending its flight in the South Indian Ocean, it is likely that it is from MH370 (aircraft registered as 9M-MRO).”The commonality of the LSP wire mesh used in composite materials in several floating debris items and being consistent with the Boeing specifications and use of Dexmet Corporation wire grid products, it is equally likely that these parts are from MH370 (aircraft registered as 9M-MRO). The “Tataly” debris item and the “Broken O” debris item are both highly likely from MH-370(aircraft registered as 9M-MRO). The debris items should be repatriated to Malaysia and analysed by air accident experts. We await their report in due course."

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