Large wing piece in Australia to be tested for MH370 link

"A large piece of aircraft debris, believed to be a wing flap, has arrived in Australia for testing as part of the search for Malaysia Airlines flight MH370", officials said Monday.

The piece, found by locals on Pemba Island just off the coast of Tanzania on June 23, was now in Canberra, the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) said.

"Technical specialists from the ATSB are working with Malaysian investigators to determine if it is from the Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777, MH370," the bureau said in a statement.

The ATSB has so far examined four pieces of debris on behalf of Malaysia and determined they are almost certainly from MH370, a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing which disappeared in March 2014 with 239 people on board.

They are in addition to a piece of wing debris found on Reunion Island a year ago and positively identified by French officials as originating from flight MH370.

Australia is coordinating the search for the plane in the southern Indian Ocean far off its west coast, but so far has not found its final resting place.

Minister for Transport Darren Chester confirmed on Monday that the ATSB had received "a wing part suspected to be from MH370".

More than 110,000 square kilometres (42,470 square miles) of the 120,000 square kilometre search zone have so far been combed.