Air crash investigators risk being sidelined in a tussle to unlock the secrets of lost Flight MH370, fueling concerns that their role in making flying safer could be diminished.
By drifting onto Reunion Island, the barnacled remains of a Boeing wing part from the Malaysia Airlines jet have given the upper hand to a French judicial investigation, exposing for the second time this year how civil crash investigations struggle to compete with police-led probes.
For decades, reconstructions of disasters by specialist safety investigators have been seen as crucial to making aviation safer, with accident rates at historically low levels.