by Our Foreign Desk

FURTHER debris washed up on a Reunion beach was being investigated yesterday for signs that it could have come from Malaysia Airlines flight 370.

A wing flap thought to be from the missing plane was found last Wednesday on the French Indian Ocean island. It arrived on Saturday at a French military testing facility, where it is being analysed.

Air safety investigators, including one from Boeing, have identified the component as a flaperon from the trailing edge of a Boeing 777 wing.

Flight 370 is the only missing 777, making it likely that the flap comes from the ill-fated jet, which disappeared on March 8 2014 en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people on board.

Malaysian Transport Minister Liow Tiong Lai said yesterday that the Department of Civil Aviation was asking authorities in territories near Reunion to allow experts “to conduct more substantive analysis should there be more debris coming on to land, providing us with more clues to the missing aircraft.

“I urge all parties to allow this crucial investigation process to take its course. I reiterate this is for the sake of the next of kin of the loved ones of MH370 who would be anxiously awaiting news and have suffered much over this time.

“We will make an announcement once the verification process has been completed.”

Experts are expected to start their inquiry on Wednesday after an investigating judge meets Malaysian authorities and representatives of the French aviation investigative agency BEA.