BEIJING, July 30 (Xinhua) -- A piece of plane debris was found on the French Indian Ocean island of La Reunion on Wednesday and U.S. investigators concluded that it came from a Boeing 777 airplane, raising speculation that it belongs to MH370 flight that went missing March 2014.
However, authorities and experts deem it premature to reach a conclusion before analysis results are released.
The two-meter-long piece of wreckage, which appeared to be part of an aircraft wing, was discovered by people cleaning up a beach on Reunion Island, east of Madagascar, in the Indian Ocean on Wednesday, according to French media reports.
A witness reportedly described the piece as "partly encrusted with shells", indicating a long time under water.
Some crucial photographs of the debris were sent to Boeing and Malaysia Airlines for further examination, Joe Hattley from the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) said Thursday.
"We have forwarded the photographs onto Boeing for assessment and also to Malaysian Airlines so we can try and positively identify it to see if it's off a Boeing 777," he said.
However, identifying the wreckage could take time, according to spokesman of ATSB Dan O'Malley, and no news has yet been announced.
Aviation security expert Xavier Tytelman said the possibility that the aircraft debris belongs to MH370 cannot be ruled out, with "incredible similarities between a B777 flaperon (of the missing Boeing) and the debris found."
He also noted a reference on the wreckage, "BB670", which, according to the expert, "is not a plane's registration number, nor serial number. However... it's clear that this reference would allow a quick identification."
If the wreckage is identified as a part of MH370, it would be consistent with long-standing predictions by oceanographers that the resting place of the aircraft is in the southern Indian Ocean, Australia's Deputy Prime Minister Warren Truss said Thursday.
"It is in a place that is consistent with the area we are searching at present and would be consistent with the calculations being made for the likely resting place for MH370," Truss said.
However, some other experts consider it highly impossible, saying the wreckage may come from two other planes that crashed nearby in 2006 and 2009.
Malaysia Airlines said Thursday that it is premature to determine whether the aircraft debris discovered on Reunion Island is part of MH370.
"With regards to the reports of the discovery of an aircraft flaperon at Reunion Island, Malaysia Airlines is working with the relevant authorities to confirm the matter," the airline said in a short statement.
Malaysia has sent a team to the island to determine the origin of the plane debris, Malaysian Transport Minister Liow Tiong Lai said on Wednesday during his visit to the United Nations.
"Whatever wreckage found needs to be further verified before we can ever confirm that it belongs to MH370," he said.
MH370, a Boeing 777-200, vanished during an evening flight over the South China Sea after deviating from its set route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8, 2014, with 227 passengers and 12 crew members on board.
Huge efforts have been made to search for the missing plane, which was declared by Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak to have crashed into South Indian Ocean.
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