French investigators examining a piece of aircraft debris found on an Indian Ocean island in late July have concluded "with certainty" that the wing part came from the Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 that went missing 18 months ago on a flight to Beijing.
The part was found by beachcombers on Reunion Island on July 29 and was immediately suspected to be the first proof that Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 crashed after it veered far off course on March 8, 2014.
All 239 people on board were presumed to have died. However, discovery of the wing part, known as a flaperon, was the first physical evidence to back investigators' theory that the aircraft crashed.