AUTHORITIES have confirmed debris found on a French island in the east Indian Ocean is part of a Boeing 777 - the same aircraft as the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370.

Part of a number on a piece of aircraft wreckage confirmed the type of aircraft, according to a Malaysian transport official who said investigators are “moving close to solving the mystery of MH370”.

“From the part number, it is confirmed that it is from a Boeing 777 aircraft. This information is from MAS (Malaysia Airlines). They have informed me,” Deputy Transport Minister Abdul Aziz Kaprawi told AFP.

media_camera On its way ... police officers escort an airport vehicle transporting what is believed to be the Reunion Island debris. Picture: AFP / Richard Bouhet

The wing component found on the French island of La Reunion bears the part number “657 BB”, according to photos of the debris.

The Reunion island wreckage and the remains of a suitcase that had also been found in the same area was flown to Paris on an Air France flight.

The discovery of debris is the first positive sign that hundreds of families may soon be provided with answers, Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said.

“In a sense, this is the first positive sign that we have located part of that plane,” Ms Bishop told Channel Seven today.

“Experts will have to analyse, if this is a piece of MH370, the current drifts and how it ended up there, what does that mean for the broader search question.”

What the wing might reveal

Investigators will then take the part to Toulouse where it could be confirmed as soon as today that it was part of the plane that disappeared on March 8 last year.

If the debris is indeed confirmed to be from MH370, more detailed analysis may also yield clues as to the location of the plane.

“With a microscope, that can learn details from the torn metal,” said Xavier Tytelman, a French aviation safety expert. “You can tell whether a crash was more horizontal or vertical ... You can extrapolate a lot.”

John Cox, president and CEO of Safety Operating Systems and a former accident investigator, said minute characteristics of the metal could indicate attitude and vertical speed of the aircraft when it impacted.

“It won’t tell you how the plane crashed, but it will be a step in that direction,” Cox said.

Barnacles encrusting the wing’s edges will be studied for clues to plot the wing’s journey through the Indian Ocean, but Mr Tytelman said there could be other microscopic life clinging to the metal or bottled up inside that could further indicate where the wing traveled.

Jean-Paul Troadec, who led the investigations into the 2009 Air France crash, was less optimistic about what might be learned from the wing component.

“It will be quite limited to the way this part has broken from the aircraft,” he said. “Was it during an explosion, was it when the aircraft crashed into the sea? ... On the exact way the aircraft disappeared it will not be ... from the examination of this part, if will be from the discovery of the black boxes in the Indian Ocean.”

media_camera Confirmed ... Part of an aircraft wing that has washed up at Reunion Island has been confirmed as belonging to a Boeing 777. Picture: Supplied.

Other items discovered on Reunion

Meanwhile, authorities are tempering expectations that a suitcase found on the same beach is linked to the missing airliner.

It washed ashore at the same location as the aircraft flaperon but as yet there is no confirmation the suitcase is linked to the earlier debris.

Other items found on the beach including the suitcase and a bottle of milk were considered less likely to have come from the missing plane.

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media_camera Pleased to hear of the French involvement ... Missy Lawton, 25, Glenda Brinkman, 31 and Amanda Lawton, 28 - daughters of MH370 victims Rob and Cathy Lawton. Picture: Supplied.

Discovery revives frustrations for families

Families and experts said they were pleased to hear of the French involvement, after more than a year of frustration dealing with Malaysian authorities.

“We do have confidence in the Australian Government but we don’t really find out too much when it goes through Malaysia,” said Amanda Lawton, whose parents Bob and Cathy Lawton were among the six Australians on board the plane.

Strategic Aviation Solutions director Neil Hansford said he was happy the Malaysians “didn’t get to touch it”.

“At least the French, despite their Airbus orientation, will do an International Civil Aviation Organisation-standard proper independent analysis that will tell us that it is a Boeing component,” Mr Hansford said.

He said he felt certain the item would prove to be part of the missing MH370.

“There’s no other 777s missing and if a flaperon fell off a 777 in flight, everybody would know about it,” he said.

It’s a big ocean out there

How much help the discovery might be to the MH370 investigation is in some dispute.

Professor Charitha Pattriachti - whose University of Western Australia team predicted debris would turn up near Reunion Island around this time - said all searchers in the southern Indian Ocean could do, was “keep searching”.

“It gives us hope and confidence the search is being conducted in the right place, and if they keep looking, they will eventually find it,” said Prof Pattriachti.

media_camera Ocean current modelling ... University of Western Australia Professor of Coastal Oceanography, Charitha Pattiaratchi.

Fellow oceanographer Dr Erik van Sebille, of London’s Imperial College said there was no hope of tracing the flaperon’s plunge point.

“The ocean is so chaotic, it would be very hard to track back where this particular piece was 16 months ago,” said Dr van Sebille.

Originally published as Plane debris arrives in France