Aviation experts in France are due to begin examining part of a plane wing that washed up on the Indian Ocean island of Reunion. It is believed that debris came from Flight MH370, which disappeared without a trace in March 2014 with 239 people on board.

The fragment, known as a flaperon, is from a Boeing 777, the same make as the missing Malaysian airliner.

Malaysian and Australian aviation experts have also been invited to help in the investigation, which is being carried out in Toulouse. Boeing employees will also be attending. The part should be identified by the end of this week.

Apart from establishing if the wing part came from MH370, experts will also be trying to find out the cause of the crash.

Jean-Paul Troadec, the former head of the French said: “Every airline paints their planes in a certain way... and if the paint used is used by Malaysia Airlines and other companies, there may be more certainty." No other Boeing 777s are thought to have crashed in the region.

In the meantime experts say that, if the wing fragment turns out to be part of missing Flight 370 there are probably other pieces of the aircraft that floated off rather than sinking to the bottom of the ocean. Finding them remains the hard part. John Page, an aircraft design expert at the University of New South Wales in Australia, said the discovery of the fragment last week on Reunion Island leads him to conclude the missing Boeing 777 broke up, most likely when it hit the water nearly 17 months ago.

He said that while the main body of the plane is likely to have sunk, he thinks other small, lightweight parts attached to the wings and tail may have floated free and could still be afloat — pieces like the flaps, elevators, ailerons and rudders.