Debris found on Reunion Island comes from MH370: Malaysian PM

“Family members of passengers and crew have already been informed and we extend our deepest sympathies to those affected”, the airline said.

The statement said this “is indeed a major breakthrough for us in resolving the disappearance of MH370”.

Moving forward, Malaysia Airlines said its priority would continue to provide latest updates and information to the families and will fully cooperate with the relevant authorities on the investigation and recovery of this tragic accident.

Australia has been leading the hunt for the plane which vanished en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people on board in March previous year.

But he added that at this time “all you can say that it proves is that MH370 definitely crashed into the southern Indian Ocean and it also proves that the search area as identified by the Australian experts…is appropriate”.

The fragment – a 6-foot-long, barnacle-encrusted wing flap – was discovered on July 29 by a crew cleaning the beach on Reunion Island, a French territory in the Indian Ocean off the southern tip of Africa.

The announcement, by providing clear evidence that the plane crashed in the ocean, closes a chapter in one of the biggest mysteries in aviation history, but still leaves unanswered questions about why it disappeared.

He said that additional experts would be able to confirm the finding by Thursday.

A U.S. official familiar with the investigation said the flaperon clearly is from a Boeing 777.

With no other 777s or flaperons known to be missing, it makes sense that the part comes from Flight 370, but the U.S. and Boeing team members are merely trying “to be precise”, the official said.

Investigators looking at the wing flap are likely to start by putting thin slices of metal under a high-powered microscope, to see subtle clues in the metal’s crystal structure about how it deformed on impact, said Hans Weber, president of TECOP global, Inc., an aerospace technology consulting firm based in San Diego, California.

Ross Tapsell, a Malaysia expert at the Australian National University, said he suspected Najib had snatched an opportunity to distract Malaysians from a corruption scandal that threatens his power.

But Sara hoped this would mean families of the victims could finally get answers as officials should be able to trace the wing back to the crash site.

“France is being cautious about it, but Malaysia is desperate to put an end to this case and run away from all responsibilities”, she said.

“My son doesn’t know yet that his dad is really gone, that he won’t be back”, she said, in tears.

Analysts have said an examination of the wing part could indicate what kind of stress the plane was under when it hit the water.

In the Chinese capital, Xu Jinghong said she could not understand why Malaysian and French authorities did not make their announcement together.

Oceanographers say that Indian Ocean currents could easily have carried debris counterclockwise from the search zone toward the coast of Africa in the 17 months since the plane was lost. Investigators believe that someone may have deliberately switched off the aircraft’s transponder, diverted it thousands of miles off course, and deliberately crashed into the ocean off Australia. Investigators settled on that scenario after analyzing data exchanged between the plane and a satellite, which showed the jetliner took a straight path across the ocean.