August 14, 2015 1:00 pm
Very rarely used on a daily basis, the aviation-related term “flaperon” has grown in its contextual familiarity due to being more frequently present in world news. Comprised of two words, it refers to two aircraft components responsible for the lift and direction during flight: flap and ailerons.
In recent events, there has been a discovery of plane debris confirmed to have belonged to flight MH370 of Malaysian Airlines, which mysteriously disappeared on March 8, 2014. For this reason, we have chosen “flaperon” as the IATE term of the week.
Having vanished more than a year ago en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, there has been no evidence of the aircraft’s whereabouts, leaving a myriad of unanswered questions and theories among experts, families and the general public. However, near the end of July 2015, a two-meter long plan wing piece was found off the coast of Réunion, an island east of Madagascar.
Holding a strong possibility of belonging to model Boeing 777, this would mean that it fits the profile as the only missing Boeing 777 in the world from MH370. While experts continue to analyse and draw conclusions on the whereabouts of the aircraft’s wreckage and also attempt to chart its journey off-course, this physical discovery is an important clue to a case which has received no closure for 17 months.
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Written by Margarita Reyes
Study Visit at TermCoord
Student at the University of Luxembourg
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