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The Australian government said Friday that search for missing flight MH370 will continue regardless of whether wreckage found on La Reunion Island came from the aircraft, while the debris is being transferred to France for examination.
"Australia's priority and our responsibility is to do whatever we can to locate the last resting place of the aircraft," Deputy Prime Minister Warren Truss said in a press conference in Sydney.
The wreckage piece will arrive in Toulouse, France Saturday for analysis by the General Directorate of Armaments (DGA), according to Le Figaro.
The DGA's laboratory specializing in "investigations after accidents" will determine whether it is part of the Malaysia Airlines MH370 that went missing in March 2014, according to the French newspaper.
The object, which appeared to be part of a wing torn from a jetliner, has already been crated and sealed for shipment to France, a French official with knowledge of the investigations said.
If confirmed to be part of MH370, the wreckage will "eliminate some of the fanciful theories that have been around that the aircraft is secretly parked somewhere on land in another part of the world," according to Truss.
Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak said earlier that a Malaysian team is on the way to Toulouse now, which includes senior representatives from the Transport Ministry, the Department of Civil Aviation, the MH370 investigation team and Malaysia Airlines.
The two-meter-long piece of wreckage was reportedly discovered by environmental worker Johnny Begue on Reunion Island, east of Madagascar, in the Indian Ocean on Wednesday.
A witness reportedly described the piece as "partly encrusted with shells", indicating a long time under water.
Begue, 46, stumbled across the plane part while collecting stones to grind spices.
With several workmates, Begue carried the wing fragment out of the water so that it would not be battered by the surf against the volcanic rocks and then alerted police.
Begue also discovered a "closed" suitcase "in very bad condition" about 2.5 meters away, though it's unclear whether there is any link to the plane wing, according to local media.
So far, Boeing officials have confirmed that the debris is consistent in appearance with a Boeing 777's flaperon, a wing component unique to Boeing 777.
Jason Middleton, an aviation professor at the University of New South Wales, said that if the part belongs to MH370, it could provide valuable clues about what caused the aircraft to vanish in the first place.
The nature of the damage to the debris could help indicate whether the plane broke up in mid-air or when it hit the water, and how violently it did so, according to Middleton.
French authorities in charge of the investigations remained cautious of the debris' origin. The French Justice Ministry said Thursday in a statement that "at this stage, the origin of the debris is not identified."
It is too early to speculate at this stage, Razak said, adding that "we need to verify whether it is from Flight MH370" in a statement on his Facebook page.
As for the possibility of locating the crash site based on movement of ocean currents, experts generally regard it highly unlikely.
Robin Beaman, a marine geologist at Australia's James Cook University, said it is extremely difficult to pinpoint where the plane crashed considering time and distance.
Reverse engineering of the ocean currents over 18 months is going to take a lot of math and science, according to Greg Feith, an aviation safety consultant and former crash investigator at the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board.
The missing flight, a Boeing 777-200, vanished en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8, 2014, with a total of 227 passengers and 12 crew members on board.
So far, the plane has not been found despite a massive surface and underwater hunt, which has become one of the biggest mysteries in the aviation history.
