Kuala Lumpur: Confirmation that plane debris washed up on a remote Indian Ocean island is from missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 appears imminent in the first breakthrough of one of the world's most baffling aviation mysteries.

A team from aircraft maker Boeing has been dispatched to France to confirm that the barnacle-encrusted debris is from the plane that disappeared in March last year with 239 people on board.

The debris washed up on Reunion Island, possibly from MH370. Credit:Reuters

Sources close to Boeing have been quoted in the United States as saying the company believes the two metre long wing part known as a flaperon is from MH370 but company experts will confirm it when they arrive at the offices of France's crash investigation agency laboratory in Toulouse over the weekend.