Wreckage found on the French island of Reunion in the Indian Ocean appears to be a part of the Malaysian Airlines flight MH370 that mysteriously disappeared in March 2014, media reports said on Thursday.
Reunion, a French territory, is about 600 km east of Madagascar.
The piece believed to be part of the missing MH370 is "almost certainly" from a Boeing 777 aircraft, Malaysian Deputy Transport Minister Abdul Aziz Kaprawi said.
"The flaperon is similar with that on a Boeing 777 aircraft. It's almost certain (that it is from a Boeing 777)," the minister told The Malaysian Star daily.
He said the ministry however still could not confirm it belonged to MH370, en-route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people onboard -- 227 passengers and 12 crew members -- when it vanished on March 8, 2014.
The Malaysian government has dispatched a team to Reunion Island to investigate the debris, Transportation Minister Liow Tiong Lai said in New York.
"We need to verify. We have wreckage found that needs to be further verified before we can further confirm if it belongs to MH370. So we have dispatched a team to investigate on these issues and we hope that we can identify it as soon as possible," the minister said.
According to Abdul, if it was confirmed, it could either be sent back to Malaysia or to an International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO)-certified lab in Paris for further investigation.
"Once our team reaches there, they will decide at Reunion Island with our minister's Liow Tiong Lai) input," he said.
Xavier Tytelman, a former military pilot who now specialises in aviation security, was contacted on Wednesday by a man living on Reunion island.
The man sent Tytelman a series of photos showing the wreckage of a plane, which the Frenchman said could possibly be the missing MH370, The Telegraph reported.
"I've been studying hundreds of photos and speaking to colleagues," Tytelman said, adding "and we all think it is likely that the wing is that of a Boeing 777 -- the same plane as MH370".
"Police in Reunion examining the wreckage say that it looks like it's been in the water for around a year, which again would fit with MH370. We can't say for certainty, but we do think there is a chance that this is it," he added.
Malaysian Airlines said it was working with the authorities to determine where the part came from.
A journalist on Reunion, Yannick Pitou, told the BBC that as soon as the debris was found on the beach, local workers called the police.
It "was brought to the local airport in Sainte-Marie to a secure location and a piece of it has been sent to France for further analysis," he said.
