In the currently unresolved case of the missing MH370, Australian authorities said on Thursday, August 6, that they are getting closer to solving the MH370 mystery, following the reports that Malaysia confirmed a debris from the plane was found on an island in the remote Indian Ocean, reports say.
Prime Minister Tony Abbott said in his statement on Thursday, that the debris, a plane wing referred to as flaperon "does seem to indicate that the plane did come down, more or less where we thought it did, and it suggests that for the first time we might be a little bit closer to solving this baffling mystery,"
Chief commissioner of the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB), Martin Dolan, whose agency led the search around the island continent, added "we're confident that we're looking in the right area and we'll find the aircraft there,"
However, Dolan went on to say that "too early to tell" about what really happened to the MH370 passenger jet which vanished 17 months ago. He said, that "close examination (of the flaperon) is what's necessary to access how much we can learn."
Australian authorities have taken the lead of the search for the plane which vanished in the area around Kuala Lumpur to Beijing in March last year. There were 239 passengers on board and unaccounted for.
Since last year, no physical evidence of the plane crash had been found until the 'flaperon' appeared on the Reunion Island of the French territory, which was announced early on Thursday by Prime Minister Naijib Razak.
"The finding of wreckage on La Reunion is consistent with our current search area," Australian deputy prime minister Warren Truss said on Thursday.
He went on saying, "For this reason thorough and methodical search efforts will continue in the defined search area."
Reports say that more debris washed up on the searched area where the flaperon was found, including a plane window and aluminum foil which may have also come from the MH370 passenger jet.
As the hunt for other evidence continues, Warren Truss added that at this time of the search, "all you can say that it proves is that MH370 definitely crashed into the southern Indian Ocean and it also proves that the search area as identified by the Australian experts is appropriate."
