This most recently found piece of wreckage connected with the doomed jet was discovered by three locals, who passed it on to independent investigator Blaine Gibson, who earlier identified 13 of 27 pieces of debris as being from the flight, according to IB Times.
The piece has been examined by the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) and “was confirmed as originating from the aircraft registered 9M-MRO and operating as MH370.” The fragment is “the inboard section of a Boeing 777 right, outboard flap.” It was reported that the debris has part numbers, date stamps and other identifiers of the plane.
“Further examination of the debris will continue in hopes that evidence may be uncovered which may provide new insight into the circumstances surrounding flight MH370,” Malaysia’s transport ministry said.
Earlier, on Monday, the ATSB announced that the plane may have been on fire prior to its crash. According to Gibson, “the top layer of paint has been singed, scorched black.”
“If it was proven this was from the avionics bay, it was a flash fire, yes, it changes everything,” aviation specialist Geoffrey Thomas told Channel 7 in Perth. Following the disaster, there was speculation on whether a fire brought down the plane.
Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 disappeared from radar screens on March 8, 2014, en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people on board.
According to the Malaysian transport minister, the search for the missing aircraft will continue until the entire search area of 120,000 square kilometers (over 46,000 square miles) defined by experts has been covered. So far, several pieces of debris suspected to come from the aircraft have been found at different locations, including in Mozambique, South Africa and the French island of Reunion.