French officers inspected a flaperon, part of a plane’s wing, that washed up on a beach on the island of Réunion last week. Credit Lucas Marie/Associated Press

PARIS  — Part of a plane that washed up last week on Réunion Island in France are confirmed to be a piece of the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 by Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak on Wednesday afternoon.

“The international team of experts have conclusively confirmed that the aircraft debris found on Reunion Island is indeed from MH370,” Mr. Razak said in a televised statement prior to the Paris news conference. Deputy Paris Prosecutor, Serge Mackowiak, said there were “very strong presumptions” that the part belonged to Flight 370, though additional confirmations would need to be made.

Experts have cautioned that the discovery would be unlikely to tell investigators exactly what happened to the plane.

Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 mysteriously disappeared with 239 people aboard in March of 2014 while on a flight from Beijing to Kuala Lumpur. Shortly after takeoff, the plane veered off its planned route and stopped communicating with ground controllers. Months of air and sea search efforts have failed to find any trace of the aircraft until the debris washed up last week in France.

Source: The New York Times