“It (if proven) establishes really beyond any doubt that the aircraft is resting in the Indian Ocean and not secretly parked in some hidden place on the land in another part of the world”, he said.
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The debris, as well as a suitcase that has washed up on the island, will be sent to France for testing.
Despite an worldwide search, which has become the costliest in aviation history, no concrete clues have emerged that could provide long-awaited answers to the mystery of the plane’s disappearance.
But investigative lead Martin Dolan, of Australia, told CNN in a live interview Thursday evening – Friday morning, just before 9:30 a.m., in Canberra, Australia – an analysis of currents indicates it’s possible the debris was carried to the spot where it was found.
But Truss said that French and Malaysian authorities will be responsible for establishing whether the debris found off the island came from the missing jetliner.
The plane, en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, was carrying 239 passengers and crew. “It’s nearly certain (that it is from a Boeing 777)”, the minister told The Malaysian Star daily.
An identifying mark reading “BB657” was found on the debris, and French officials hope to use that mark as a more accurate determiner of whether the part did, in fact, belong to a 777, and specifically, flight MH370.
The find might also offer a measure of comfort to relatives of the passengers, Mr Razak said.
Dolan reportedly said that he is hoping for greater clarity “within the next 24 hours”.
The wreckage was found on Reunion Island, a French territory east of Madagascar.
“Confirmation that the wing part was the first trace of Flight 370 ever found would finally disprove theories that the airliner might have disappeared in the northern hemisphere”, he said.
A Malaysian official and aviation experts have said the piece of debris, a 2m-2.5m long wing surface known as flaperon, is nearly certainly part of a Boeing 777, the same type of aircraft as MH370.
In a possibly related development, the same cleaning crew on Thursday found a suitcase with wheels near the same spot, the local newspaper, Le Journal de L’ile de la Reunion reports.
Malaysia Airlines said it is “too premature for the airline to speculate [on] the origin of the flaperon”, a wing component.
The source added: “We are offering brainpower not ships”.
Oceanographers said vast, rotating currents sweeping the southern Indian Ocean could have deposited wreckage from MH370 thousands of kilometres from where the plane is thought to have crashed.
“We have had many false alarms before, but for the sake of the families who have lost loved ones, and suffered such heartbreaking uncertainty, I pray that we will find out the truth, so that they may have closure and peace”, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak said in a statement.
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“We’ve received some pictures of the item and we are having them assessed by the manufacturers as to what they may be”, a spokesman for the Australian Transport Safety Bureau told the AAP news agency. MH 370 is a missin airplane belonging to Malaysia Airlines Flight.
