a major lead in the search for malaysia airlines flight 370 as we wait to here whether or not a piece of plane debris belongs to that missing jet, a police helicopter is flying above the shoreline of reunion island. police are encouraging locals to scour the beach for more debris. the debris found will soon be on its way to france. france of course owns the island where the debris was found. let s head to kuala lumpur now where we are following the investigation. is there any update at all? reporter: there is. and we ve been getting updates
the indian ocean is wreckage from flight 370. that plane vanished without a trace last march with 239 people on board. right now a police chopper is scouring the coastline where that object was found. people living on the island are also being encouraged to help with the search. to put this into perspective, this is where the boeing 777 disappeared. for months authorities have been scouring a search zone off the coast of australia. here is where this debris was found. it s more than 2,000 miles away from the primary search area. we re covering all angles of this story and we have a team of experts, too. let s begin with cnn s christy lou stout in kuala lumpur. reporter: this is a break through. it s a major development. suspected debris of the missing malaysia airlines flight has been found off the coast of madagascar in reunion island. it has been a long and agonizing wait for the families of the 239
whatever happens, we will not give up. we have had many false alarms before but for the sake of the families who have lost loved ones and suffered such heartbreaking uncertainty, i pray that we will find out the truth so that they may have closure and peace. i promise the families of those lost that whatever happens we will not give up. that should be very welcome news to the families of the chinese passengers who were on board this plane. most of the passengers were from mainland china, in fact 152 passengers were from the prc. the families of the chinese passengers issued a statement today saying that they don t want 99% verification of this piece of debris. they want 100% verification. they also want to know about the whereabouts of their loved ones and they want that search effort to go on no matter what. back to you, carol. all right. . i want to focus on the investigation. i want to bring in managing director and cnn aviation analyst peter goals. peter, welcome. good mornin
people who were on board this missing plane. if confirmed, if this piece of debris is in fact verified that there s a link to the missing jetliner this will be the first time we will have a tang i will sign physical evidence of the plane, since it went missing in march of 2014, and already we re getting reaction from the families. we heard this from the wife of passenger patrick gomez. she says quote, i am torn. if it is confirmed to have come from 370 there will be closure for us but i m also hoping it is not the plane. i m hoping patrick is still alive. carol, very key there that even though it provides some closure, if there is verification that this piece of suspected debris is, in fact, from mh-370. so many questions about what happened about what happened. we have additional reaction from the prime minister. he posted i promise the families of those last that
this man telling a reporter he saw a wing as he walked closer to the debris. the debris bearing the marking bb670. we re pretty clear that it would have been also part of mh370. reporter: flight mh370 vanished without a trace in march of last year with 239 souls on board shortly after take takeoff from kuala lumpur. the malaysian government declaring the missing plane an accident, everyone on board presumed dead. this may be the first piece of physical evidence bringing authorities one step closer to unlocking the mystery of the ill-fated flight. prime minister of malaysia has stated that it is very likely that this piece of the debris belongs to the boeing triple 7. he s asked the world to pray for