This is despite Australia’s announcement yesterday that the confirmation would not alter current search operations.

The French prosecutor’s office said on Thursday that a wing part found on Reunion Island on July 29, 16 months after the flight disappeared, belonged to the missing aircraft.

Investigators have been examining the wing part, called a flaperon, since it was flown to a French aeronautical research laboratory near Toulouse last month.

“We have been working on the assumption that the flaperon was associated with MH370”, Dolan said. “It is helpful to have formal affirmation of this, so it is good for us”.

The weather in the southern Indian Ocean should improve through spring and into summer and that will accelerate the search.

“We are now reviewing the options available to us to see whether we will acquire other vessels and equipment for the summer period”, he said. However, discovery of the wing part, known as a flaperon, was the first physical evidence to back investigators’ theory that the aircraft crashed.

“We will watch developments obviously but at this stage we haven’t seen anything that actually assists in refining or changing the search area“.

Australian Transport Minister Warren Truss meanwhile was reported saying that once the area of highest probability had been covered, search operations would end as per agreement with the countries involved. The flaperon, which is the strongest piece of proof to floor thus far, was reportedly confirmed to be from the lacking aircraft after a technician from Airbus Defence and Area (ADS-SAU) in Spain, which made the half for Boeing, formally recognized certainly one of three numbers on the flaperon as being the serial variety of Flight MH370.

“We are confident we are looking in the right area”, Truss said, adding it was frustrating the search had gone on so long without a result since the Boeing 777 disappeared on March 2014, with 227 passengers and 12 crew on board.