Malaysia: Debris found on Reunion Island belongs to a Boeing 777

3 August 2015 01:20 pm

Kuala Lumpur (dpa) - A piece of a plane's wing found on Reunion Island on Wednesday has been identified as belonging to a Boeing 777 aircraft, the Malaysian transportation minister said on Sunday.

"We know the flaperon has been officially identified as part of a Boeing 777 aircraft," Transportation Minister Liow Tiong Lai said.

Liow said French authorities, aircraft manufacturer Boeing, the US National Transportation Safety Board and Malaysia's Department of Civil aviation had all verified that the flaperon is part of a Boeing 777.

"I urge all parties to allow this crucial investigation process to take its course," Liow added. "I reiterate this is for the sake of the next of kin of the loved ones of MH370 who would be anxiously waiting news and have suffered much over this time."

The 2-metre segment was sent to the French city of Toulouse at the weekend where investigators want to determine if it was part of the Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 that disappeared on its way to Beijing on March 8, 2014, with 239 people on board.

This would be the first confirmed trace of the airline.