US official: Debris in Indian Ocean belongs to Boeing 777

Air safety investigators have a "high degree of confidence" that aircraft debris found in the Indian Ocean is of a wing component unique to the Boeing 777, the same model as the Malaysia Airlines plane that disappeared last year, a US official has said.

Air safety investigators - one of them a Boeing investigator - have identified the component as a "flaperon" from the trailing edge of a 777 wing, the US official said yesterday.

A French official close to an investigation of the debris confirmed yesterday that French law enforcement is on site to examine a piece of airplane wing found on the French island of Reunion, in the western Indian Ocean.

A French television network was airing video from its Reunion affiliate of the debris. US investigators are examining a photo of the debris.

The last primary radar contact with Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 placed its position over the Andaman Sea about 230 miles northwest of the Malaysian city of Penang. The French island of Reunion is about 3,500 miles (5,600 kilometres) southwest of Penang, according to a Google map.

The US and French officials spoke on condition that they not be named because they aren't authorised to speak publicly.

At the United Nations, Malaysian Transport Minister liow Tiong lai told reporters that he has sent a team to verify the identity of the plane wreckage.

"Whatever wreckage found needs to be further verified before we can ever confirm that it is belonged to MH370," he said.

The discovery is unlikely to alter the seabed search, said Australian Transport Safety Bureau Chief Commissioner Martin Dolan, who is heading up the search effort in a remote patch of ocean far off the west coast of Australia.

If the find proved to be part of the missing aircraft, it would be consistent with the theory that the plane crashed within the  46,000 square mile (120,000 square kilometre) search area, 1,100 miles (1,800 kilometres) southwest of Australia, he said.

Malaysia dispatches team to verify plane wreckage

PTI | United Nations: Malaysia has sent a team to verify whether a mysterious piece of plane debris washed up on a French island in the Indian Ocean belonged to the ill-fated MH370 that disappeared without a trace March last year with 239 people on board.

Malaysia's Minister of Transport liow Tiong lai told reporters here yesterday that he had received information from his colleagues in Malaysia about the wreckage that has been spotted in the French island of la Reunion.

The Boeing 777-200 plane of Malaysia Airlines went missing on March 8, 2014, an hour after taking off from Kuala lumpur for Beijing with 239 people on board, including five Indians and one Indian-Canadian.

"I have sent a team to verify the wreckage. Anyway we need to verify," he said following a Security Council meeting on another Malaysia Airlines flight MH17, which crashed in July 2014 in Donetsk , Ukraine.

"Whatever wreckage found needs to be further verified before we can further confirm whether it belongs to MH370," he said.

"So we have dispatched a team to investigate on this issues and we hope that we can identify it as soon as possible," he added.

The mysterious piece of plane debris washed up on the French Indian Ocean island of la Reunion, prompting speculation that it could be part of the missing Malaysia Airlines flight.

The two-metre-long piece of wreckage, which seemed to be part of a wing, was found by people cleaning up a beach.

"It was covered in shells, so one would say it had been in the water a long time," said one witness.

French air transport officials have already opened a probe to investigate where the wreckage could have come from.

No part of the MH370 wreckage has been found so far.

Malaysian authorities in January declared that all on board were presumed dead.