(CNN) — The discovery of a piece of debris off the coast of Reunion Island is “a very significant development” in the search for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, but further analysis is necessary to determine whether it’s part of the missing aircraft, Australian Deputy Prime Minister Warren Truss said Thursday.
Authorities are treating it as “a major lead,” Truss told reporters.
The debris was found Wednesday off the coast of Reunion, a French department in the western Indian Ocean. It is being examined to determine whether it is connected to Flight 370, according to a member of the French air force in Reunion.
A source close to the investigation told CNN that Boeing officials believe they are seeing a wing component of a 777 aircraft in the photos of the debris.
Truss said Thursday that there is a number — BB670 — on the object that may help investigators in the identification process. He said it wasn’t a serial or registration number but could be a maintenance number.
French and Malaysian authorities will be responsible for establishing whether the debris came from MH370, Truss said.
The Malaysian government has dispatched a team to Reunion Island to investigate the debris, Malaysian Minister of Transportation Liow Tiong Lai said in New York.
“We need to verify. We have wreckage found that needs to be further verified before we can further confirm if it belongs to MH370. So we have dispatched a team to investigate on these issues and we hope that we can identify it as soon as possible,” the minister said.
Malaysia Airlines said it was working with authorities to determine where the part came from.
“At the moment, it would be too premature for the airline to speculate on the origin of the flaperon,” the carrier said.
CNN analysts said there are indications the airplane part could be from a Boeing 777, and if that’s the case, it’s likely from MH370.
“If it is a part from a triple 7, we can be fairly confident it is from 370 because there just haven’t been that many triple 7 crashes and there haven’t been any in this area,” said CNN aviation analyst Mary Schiavo.
