KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — Searchers on Reunion island have found additional pieces of debris that resemble airplane parts, which will be tested to see if they came from missing Malaysia Airlines’ Flight 370, Malaysia’s transport minister said.

The items include materials from seat cushions and window panes, Transport Minister Liow Tiong Lai said by telephone Thursday afternoon.

“The team has handed over the materials to Reunion island authorities,” he said. The debris “will be sent to France to verify if it belongs to MH370.”

Liow also said a maintenance seal on the initial wing part found July 29 on Reunion, a French territory near Africa, matched Malaysia Airlines’ records. His comments came less than a day after Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak confirmed that the piece, known as a flaperon, came from Flight 370, the first physical evidence of the jet that vanished 17 months ago with 239 people on board.

Investigators “conclusively” linked the piece to the missing aircraft, Najib said early Thursday morning in Kuala Lumpur. The announcement validates authorities’ hypothesis that Flight 370 crashed in a remote stretch of the Indian Ocean southwest of Australia.

Still, it doesn’t pinpoint where the aircraft took its fatal plunge in March 2014 – or why it strayed so far from its intended Kuala Lumpur-to-Beijing route.

The inquiry into the longest search for a modern commercial jet is a multilayered effort involving French judicial authorities and the Malaysian government, as well as aviation accident investigators from the United States, Australia and France. Specialists from Chicago-based Boeing also are participating.

The region being scoured by sonar submersibles is about 2,400 miles southeast of Reunion, a stretch of mostly open ocean due west of Australia.


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