Over a year after going missing, investigators may have finally found a piece of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370. A piece of airplane debris washed up on a small French island near Madagascar and is being treated as a ‘major lead.’
The flight disappeared on March 8, 2014 after leaving Kuala Lumpur. It was carrying 239 people to Beijing. Despite possible leads, no pieces of the plane were ever recovered. In January, officials declared it an “accident” and said that all passengers are presumed dead.
But this week, the flaperon piece of an airplane washed up on Reunion Island. Australian deputy prime minister Warren Truss said Wednesday morning that there is a number on the debris to help identify it, although it isn’t a serial number, reports ABC News.
“If it entered the Indian Ocean in the place where a current search operations are being undertaken, [it] could have reached the Reunion Islands in the 16 months since," Truss said. "It's the first real evidence that there is a possibility that a part of the aircraft may have been found."
CNN reports that authorities are still treating the piece as a “major lead,” Truss said. Even though it is too soon to call it a piece of MH370, that flight was the only Boeing 777 that crashed in the area that is unaccounted for. That should help investigators.
A local report in Reunion Island said that there was a tattered suitcase that also washed ashore near where the debris was. Police already have the suitcase.
screenshot from CNN YouTube video