PARIS, Aug 5 (Reuters) - Experts examining a piece of debris that washed up on Reunion Island have reached a "very strong presumption" that it comes from a missing Malaysian jetliner but their finding still needs to be confirmed, a French prosecutor said on Wednesday.
Deputy Paris prosecutor Serge Mackowiak told reporters that a fragment of suitcase also found on the island would be subjected to forensic examination by French gendarme police "as soon as possible".
Experts based their conclusions about the wing part on information supplied by planemaker Boeing (NYSE:BA) BA.N and by Malaysia Airlines, he said.
He was speaking shortly after Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak said the Boeing 777 wing segment discovered in the Indian Ocean island of Reunion was confirmed as coming from missing Flight MH370, the first real breakthrough in the search for the plane that disappeared 17 months ago. ID:nL3N10F2OX
Malaysia Airlines MLYAF.PK Flight MH370 disappeared in March last year enroute from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 passengers and crew on board.