France confirms wing part found on Reunion Island from Malaysia Airlines MH370

Paris: The piece of wing found on the shore of Reunion Island in the Indian Ocean has been formally identified as part of the wreckage of Malaysian Airlines flight MH370, the Paris prosecutor said on Thursday.

The part, known as a flaperon, was found on the shore of the French-governed island on July 29 and Malaysian authorities have said paint colour and maintenance-record matches proved it came from the missing Boeing 777 aircraft.

The wing piece found on Reunion Island in July was covered in barnacles. It has been confirmed as coming from MH370. Photo: Video still from Reuters

The French prosecutor, who had until Thursday's statement been more cautious on its provenance, said a technician from Airbus Defence and Space (ADS-SAU) in Spain, which had made the part for Boeing, had formally identified one of three numbers found on the flaperon as being the serial number of the MH370 Boeing 777.

"It is therefore possible to confirm with certainty that the flaperon found on Reunion island on July 29, 2015 corresponds to the one from flight MH370," the prosecutor said in a statement.

The plane disappeared in March last year en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 passengers and crew on board, most of them Chinese. 

Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak has confirmed debris found on Reunion Island is from missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370. Photo: Reuters

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