MH370 Debris Found: New Items Discovered On Reunion Island, As Search For Malaysia Airlines Wreckage Continues

This story has been updated.

UPDATE, 3:14 p.m. EDT: An object found on Reunion Island Sunday is not part of a plane door, a Malaysian official said, but a generic ladder that has nothing to do with missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370.

“I read all over media it (the new debris) was part of a door," Malaysian Director General of Civil Aviation Azharuddin Abdul Rahman told AFP and other media outlets. "But I checked with the Civil Aviation Authority, and people on the ground in Reunion, and it was just a domestic ladder.”

Original story below.

Investigators are examining new debris that washed ashore the Indian Ocean island of Reunion, where an item believed to be a piece of the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, aka MH370, was found Wednesday, BBC News reported. One of the newly discovered objects could be part of an airplane door, but Malaysian officials are skeptical. However, a local government official called it a "metal object of interest," CNN reported.

The Beijing-bound Flight 370 left Kuala Lumpur in March 2014, when the Boeing 777 disappeared without a trace. Aboard were 239 people. The subsequent search over a vast region of the southern Indian Ocean found nothing.

Officials said it was too soon to comment specifically on the newly found debris. "We cannot comment at this moment because it is too early to say anything about it," said Rene Bouve, a representative of Reunion's Saint-Denis prefecture, NBC News reported. Police said no immediate link between the new object and Flight 370 could be established.

Malaysian Transport Minister Liow Tiong Lai said the object found Wednesday was a wing flap of a Boeing 777. It was flown to France, where it arrived Saturday. Investigators at a laboratory there that specializes in analyzing airplane parts will aim to determine whether it came from the missing Malaysia Airlines jet. The same lab has previously examined parts of planes from other crashes, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Flight 370 is believed to be the only missing Boeing 777 in the world, the Independent reported.

Debris that has turned up on Reunion Island since Wednesday includes the possible remains of a suitcase, according to CNN. French officials are testing it for DNA, NBC News reported.

Malaysia's transport minister said his country's authorities have been in touch with officials in areas surrounding Reunion Island as the search continues for more debris and possible wreckage.