Mysterious number BB670
A number found on the aircraft part should allow authorities to confirm whether it is debris from the doomed Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 within 24 hours.
The number BB670 on what appears to be a wing flap could link the part definitively, "possibly in 24 hours" to the jetliner that disappeared on a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing in March 2014, said Martin Dolan, chief commissioner of the Australian Transport Safety Bureau who has been co-ordinating the search off the coast of Western Australia.
The part that washed up on Reunion was "not inconsistent with what we know" from the bureau's ocean drift modelling, Mr Dolan said.
"On the modelling, yep, something could come ashore at Reunion. It might even, possibly, get to Madagascar," Mr Dolan said.