A two-metre long piece of debris that washed up on Reunion Island off the east coast of Madagascar is thought to be from a Boeing 777 - and it could help solve the greatest aviation mystery of our generation.
Aviation expert Geoffrey Thomas, along with many others, believes the piece of debris could very likely be part of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370.
Pictures of the piece of wreckage – thought to be a flaperon or wing flap, unique to a Boeing 777 – are being scrutinised around the world.
Mr Thomas says so far, all signs point to MH370.
"On the 777, the flaperons are made from composite, and this piece of wreckage that's been found is showing signs of delamination consistent to composite material."
MH370 disappeared after departing from Kuala Lumpur in March last year. There were 239 people on board.
So far, $100 million has been spent looking for the plane, with the search focused off the west coast of Australia. Until now nothing had been found.
Aviation experts say they haven't been looking in the wrong area – because the Indian Ocean currents move in an anticlockwise direction, the plane could've gone down off the coast of Australia and parts drifted to Reunion Island.
Aviation expert Greg Feith says how the piece of debris got to its resting location is still being investigated.
"Somebody is really going to have to reverse engineer the flow pattern of the ocean and try and backtrack where this may have floated from."
Two New Zealanders were on board, including Paul Weeks. His sister Sara says she felt sick after hearing the news.
"Just that sinking feeling of you know, maybe they've actually found something which takes away all the hope that everyone's had all this time."
She says her family is far from closure and even if the wreckage is proved to be from MH370, there will still be many questions unanswered.
"What happened to the flight, why did no one know where it went? Why do we still not know where it is? Where is it, where are the passengers, are we going to be able to bring them home?"
But the first piece of the puzzle could've just fallen into place.
3 News
