French prosecutors now say they believe ‘with certainty’ that a wing part found on Reunion Island came from the missing flight MH370.
Investigators would previously only go as far to say there exists a ‘very high probability’ that the flaperon belonged to the Malaysia Airlines plane.
Exercising legal caution, French prosecutor Serge Mackowiak had said confirmation would only come after further tests.
This week’s final confirmation was made after a technician from Airbus Defense and Space in Spain, which had made the part for Boeing, formally identified one of three numbers found on the flaperon as being from MH370.
The earlier reluctance to confirm identification had upset the relatives of the victims, who have accused authorities of hiding the truth.
The plane went off course and disappeared from radar while flying from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing in March 2014 with 239 on board.
Despite a massive search in the southern ocean, only this one piece of debris has been found
French authorities have now launched searches on and around Reunion to look for more.
