MH370: Malaysian minister confirms wreckage is from a Boeing 777

A “metal object of interest” related to the search was found Sunday morning on the beach in St. Denis, part of Reunion Island, a local government official said.

The hunt for missing Flight MH370 is likely to continue for another year – whether or not an aircraft piece that washed ashore is from the jetliner, a top official told NBC News on Saturday.

Malaysia’s transport minister told media Sunday that a piece of debris found on Reunion Island last week is from a Boeing 777.

He added that if the wing part was confirmed as part of MH370 during Wednesday’s verification process in France, the result would be handed over to the worldwide investigation team.

MH370 disappeared after leaving Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, for Beijing on March 8 past year.

Malaysia’s Transport Minister, Liow Tiong Lai and air safety investigators, including one from Boeing, have identified the component as a flaperon from the trailing edge of a Boeing 777 wing.

Researchers say the find, if confirmed, could help with the underwater search for the missing plane.

Recent debris discovered on the island of Reunion first believed to be a plane door is in fact a ladder that has no connection with Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, according to a Malaysian official.

The wing part will undergo physical and chemical analysis and be examined with an electron microscope “that can magnify up to 10,000 times” to try to understand how it was damaged, said Pierre Bascary, former director of tests at France’s General Directorate for Armaments.

One of the pieces spotted just north of where the wing debris was found turned out to be an ordinary ladder.

A suitcase discovered near the debris will be studied at a criminal investigation laboratory in Pontoise, near the French capital, the Paris prosecutor’s office said Friday. On Monday, an investigating judge will meet with Malaysian authorities and representatives of the French aviation investigative agency, known as the BEA. Now, the experts in France will determine if it came from MH370 or another jet.

“It wasn’t until Wednesday that it hit me what it could have been”, Nicolas Ferrier, who monitors the coasts of Reunion, said in a Telegraph report.

Search efforts led by Australia have focused on a broad expanse of the southern Indian Ocean off Australia, roughly 3,700 km (2,300 miles) from Reunion Island. Over 16 months after the plane vanished with 239 people on board, searchers have not found a single piece of wreckage, a single drop of oil, or a solitary life jacket.