Malaysia has said that airplane debris that washed up on the Indian Ocean island of Reunion has been identified as being from a Boeing 777, the same model as a Malaysian Airlines plane which vanished last year.
Malaysian officials made the statement on Sunday.
An Australian-led search effort for the plane, MH370, has so far focused on a vast area of the southern Indian Ocean about 4,000km (2,500 miles) to the east of Reunion.
“This has been verified by French authorities together with aircraft manufacturer Boeing,” Transport Minister, Liow Tiong Lai, said.
No physical trace of the aircraft has been found.
Experts hope the 2-2.5 meter (6.5-8 feet) wing surface, known as a flaperon, and a fragment of luggage also found on Reunion could yield clues on the fate of Flight MH370, which disappeared without trace in March 2014 with 239 passengers and crew on board.
“We know the flaperon has been officially identified as being part of a Boeing 777 aircraft,” Lai said in a statement.
Malaysian officials, who were said to be heading to La Reunion on Saturday, had said they wanted to expand the area being searched for debris to other aviation authorities in other parts of the Indian Ocean.
It came after other reports that debris could have come from the plane washed up previously on beaches on La Reunion but was burned because it was not thought significant.
MH370 disappeared en-route, from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing in March 2014.
The debris, which was first flown to Paris, was driven to a military base near Toulouse, which specialises in analysing aviation wreckage.
