An aircraft wing part found on Reunion Island in July "with certainty" came from missing flight MH370, French officials have said.
The missing Malaysian Airlines plane, flight MH370, had 239 people onboard and was en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on 8 March 2014 when air traffic control staff lost contact with it.
In August Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak said the wing part, known as a flaperon, was from the Malaysian Airlines Boeing 777, which disappeared 18 months ago.
Despite an extensive search of the southern Indian Ocean, no trace of the aircraft had been found until the discovery of the barnacle-encrusted flaperon on Reunion Island, more than 3,700km (2,300 miles) away from the main search site, in July.
French investigators took a more cautious approach, but have now confirmed that one of three numbers found on the flaperon has been formally identified by a technician from Airbus Defense and Space (ADS-SAU) in Spain, which made the part for Boeing.
French investigators confirmed the aircraft wing part came from the missing Malaysian Airlines Boeing 777, after one of three numbers found on the flaperon was formally identified by a technician from Airbus Defense and Space (ADS-SAU) in Spain, which made the part for Boeing.
The aircraft, which had 239 people onboard, was en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on 8 March 2014 when air traffic control staff lost contact with it.
Investigators are continuing to search for the rest of the plane.
Despite an extensive search of the southern Indian Ocean, no trace of the aircraft had been found until the discovery of the barnacle-encrusted flaperon on Reunion, more than 3,700km (2,300 miles) away from the main search site.
The Australian-led search has been combing a 120,000 sq km area of seabed about 2,000km off the coast of Perth, using underwater drones and sonar equipment deployed from specialist ships.
The search
In December 2015, Australian officials said they had refined the search area and were confident they were looking in the right area for the plane.
The hunt has changed in scope many times, starting in the South China Sea.
Australia's Deputy Prime Minister Warren Truss said officials were "optimistic" the remains of the plane would be found.
At its largest, it covered 7.68 million sq km (2.96 million sq miles) - a total of 2.24 million square nautical miles. This was the equivalent of 11% of the Indian Ocean and 1.5% of the surface of the Earth.
The scope of the search has changed many times since the plane disappeared, due to confusion over its last movements.
However, from 16 March, satellite images of possible debris and tracking data released by the Malaysian authorities appeared to confirm that the plane crashed in the Indian Ocean, south west of Australia.
After searching an area of more than 2,000km (1,240 miles) south-west of Perth, the hunt switched more than 1,000km (600 miles) further north.
The search zone narrowed again in early April to an area of 850 sq km (328 sq miles) of the ocean floor - located close to acoustic signals detected by Australian teams.
A new refined search area was announced in June 2014, shifting the focus to an area covering 60,000 sq km 1,800km (1,100 miles) off the west coast of Australia.
