The washed-up plane part that was found on the French Indian Ocean island of La Reunion. (AFP Photo)
The discovery of a Boeing 777 wing part on a remote Indian Ocean island was a "real boost" to experts scouring treacherous seas for missing plane MH370, Australia's search chief said today.
The Malaysia Airlines passenger jet vanished on March 8 last year en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people on board, and its disappearance remains one of aviation's great mysteries.
A wing part, called a flaperon, washed up on the French territory of Reunion island last week, and experts believe it possible that the wreckage could have been carried there from the current search site.
Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak has "conclusively confirmed" the flaperon was from MH370, while French prosecutors and the Australian government have been more cautious in declaring a definite connection.
But Martin Dolan, chief commissioner of the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB), the agency leading the search, said that the ATSB was working on the assumption that the wing part was linked to MH370.
"It gave a real boost to the teams that are out there searching and our people in Canberra and Perth," the search chief told AFP of the find.
"It's a reinforcement that we are doing the right thing. As you know, they are a very committed team, but this gave them a real boost and they remained really focused on finding that missing aircraft."
After reviewing their data -- including the use of drift modelling to map out where debris might have floated -- Dolan said the team was confident the current search zone, about 4,000 kilometres (2,500 miles) from Reunion island where the two-metre-long piece was found, was correct.
The site of the probe -- jointly funded by Australia and Malaysia with a budget of more than Aus$100 million (US$74 million) -- is so remote that it takes the ships up to six days to reach it from the Australian port of Fremantle where they routinely refuel and restock.