1st Ld-Writethru: Debris found off Tanzania part of missing MH370 plane

The piece of debris discovered on an island off Tanzania in June this year has been confirmed to belong to the Boeing 777 plane of Malaysia Airlines MH370, Malaysia's transport minister Liow Tiong Lai said in a statement on Thursday.

Several part numbers, along with physical appearance, dimensions, and construction have been confirmed to be an inboard section of a Boeing 777 outboard flap, while a date stamp of Jan. 23, 2002 on one of the part numbers was consistent with the delivery date for MH370, said Liow.

In addition, the Italian part manufacturer has confirmed that all numbers on the discovered object relates to the same serial number outboard flap that was shipped to Boeing as line number 404, which was consistent with the part used on the plane delivered to Malaysia Airlines, registered as 9M-MRO for the MH370 plane.

The conclusion was based on the examination of experts from the Australian Transport Safety Bureau and the MH370 Safety Investigation Team, according to Liow.

Liow said further examination of the debris will continue so as to uncover further evidence which may provide insight into the circumstances of Flight MH370.

Previously, a piece of debris found on the French island of Reunion in July 2015 has been confirmed to be part of MH370.

Government of Malaysia, Australia and China announced in July that search for Flight MH370 would be suspended upon completion of the current search area, but promised to resume search should new evidence emerge. Enditem