The search for the long missing and much sought after Malaysian Airlines flight MH370 could be nearing completion, as debris found near a French Island seems consistent with the missing aircraft.

The debris, found in the Western Indian Ocean island of Reunion, seems to point towards a Boeing 777 airplane. Malaysian experts are being flown in to assess whether it could be off flight MH370.

This could be a big break, as despite going missing for a year, very little has been gleaned about the airplane, not even whether it really crashed or not.

Reunion Island is a French department in the western Indian Ocean.

The debris appeared to be a wing flap and had been taken to the island, about 380 nautical miles off the coast of Madagascar, reports CNN.

The Malaysian government has dispatched a team to Reunion Island to investigate the debris, Malaysian Minister of Transportation Liow Tiong Lai said in New York.

“We need to verify. We have wreckage found that needs to be further verified before we can further confirm if it belongs to MH370. So we have dispatched a team to investigate on these issues and we hope that we can identify it as soon as possible,” the minister said.

Malaysia Airlines said it was working with authorities to determine where the part came from.

“At the moment, it would be too premature for the airline to speculate on the origin of the flaperon,” the carrier said.

CNN analysts said there are indications the airplane part could be from a Boeing 777, and if that’s the case, it’s likely from MH370.

Making the determination should be “very simple” because the serial numbers riveted to numerous parts of the plane can be linked to not only the plane’s model, but also the exact aircraft, said CNN aviation analyst Les Abend

This means crash investigators may be able to figure it out from photographs of the part, which could be an aileron, a flap or a flaperon, even before arriving on the island, he said.

Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, with 239 people aboard, disappeared after taking off from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, early on March 8, 2014, bound for Beijing.