Malaysia said on Sunday that the plane debris that washed up on the Indian Ocean island of Reunion has been identified as being from a Boeing 777, the same model as Malaysian Airlines flight MH370 which vanished early last year.
Experts hope the 2-2.5 metre wing surface, known as a flaperon, and a fragment of luggage found on Reunion could yield clues on the fate of Flight MH370.
"We know the flaperon has been officially identified as being part of a Boeing 777 aircraft," Transport Minister Liow Tiong Lai said in a statement.
"This has been verified by French authorities together with aircraft manufacturer Boeing, U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) and the Malaysian team comprising the Department of Civil Aviation, Malaysia Airlines, and Malaysian ICAO Annex 13 Safety Investigation Team for MH370."
The flaperon was flown to Paris on Saturday and was taken to Toulouse to undergo more detailed analysis.
Representatives from Malaysia, the United States, China, France and Boeing are due to participate in a "verification" of the flaperon on Wednesday.
More pieces of metal debris found washed up on Reunion were taken into police custody on Sunday.
Discovery of the debris may finally confirm the plane crashed into the sea after veering off course from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, helping to end 16 months of lingering uncertainty for relatives.
Investigators believe someone deliberately switched off MH370's transponder before diverting it thousands of miles off course. Most of the passengers were Chinese.
>Chennai woman on missing plane
Chandrika Sharma was heading to Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, to attend a regional conference for Asia and the Pacific.
>Five Indians were on board the missing flight
Five Indian nationals were among the 227 passengers on board the missing Beijing-bound Malaysia Airlines flight.
>“When will we know what happened to MH370?”
A year on, K.S. Narendran, husband of Chandrika Sharma who was on board the flight, wonders.
