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Piece of plane wreckage came from MH370, French officials confirm

Piece of plane wreckage came from MH370, French officials confirm

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Serial number on flaperon corresponds to missing Boeing 777

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Investigators in France have confirmed "with certainty" that a piece of debris that washed ashore on Réunion Island is from Malaysia Airlines 370, the flight that disappeared from radar last year with 239 people aboard. One of three numbers on the piece of wreckage, known as a flaperon, corresponds to a serial number for MH370, the Paris prosecutor said in a statement.

The piece of wreckage washed ashore on July 29th in Réunion, a French-controlled island near Madagascar, and was later flown to a laboratory in France for further analysis. Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak announced that the debris came from MH370 last month, with Malaysian authorities saying that paint colors and maintenance records supported their conclusion. But French investigators said more tests were needed to confirm its provenance. The confirmation of its serial number was made by a technician at Airbus Defense and Space in Spain, which manufactures the part for Boeing.

It's not yet clear whether today's confirmation will shed further light on how MH370 crashed. Investigators launched searches on Réunion after the flaperon was discovered, but so far, no other plane debris has been found.