SAINT-ANDRE, France: Plane wreckage washed up on a tiny Indian Ocean island will be sent to France for investigation, as hopes mounted Thursday the mysterious object could unlock the riddle of missing flight MH370.

After a fruitless 16-month search for the Malaysia Airlines plane, the discovery of a piece of a plane wing offered up the bittersweet hope of closure to the families of 239 people who seemingly disappeared into thin air on the doomed flight.

Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak said the two-meter (six-foot) long piece of wreckage found on the French island of La Reunion was “very likely” from a Boeing 777, but it remained to be seen if it indeed came from MH370.

Malaysian investigators arrived on the island to study the object and a French military helicopter slowly circled the area above the island where the debris washed up on a rocky beach.

However as expectation mounted over the find, authorities warned against jumping to conclusions.

“Whatever wreckage is found needs to be further verified before we can further confirm whether it belongs to MH370,” said Malaysian Transport Minister Liow Tiong Lai.

Flight MH370 was traveling from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing when it mysteriously turned off its route and vanished on March 8 last year.

For relatives of those aboard, torn between wanting closure and believing their loved ones were still somehow alive, the discovery was yet another painful turn on an emotional rollercoaster.

“It has started all over again, staring at the phone constantly for news,” said Jacquita Gonzales, wife of Patrick Gomes, the flight’s cabin crew supervisor.

Local government officials on La Reunion said France’s civil aviation investigating authority BEA has been asked to coordinate an international probe into the origin of the debris.

Further adding to the mystery, a torn fragment of luggage was discovered in the same place as the plane wreckage.

“It is really weird, it gives me the shivers,” said Johnny Begue, a member of a beach clean-up crew who discovered the plane debris on Wednesday. Australia, which has led the search for MH370, said the discovery was an “important development.”

“If it is indeed wreckage from MH370, it starts to provide some closure for the families of the people on board,” said Australia’s Transport and Infrastructure Minister Warren Truss. Excitement over the discovery was tempered by suggestions it could be from planes that went down in the region before, including a South African Airways Boeing 747 that crashed near the island of Mauritius in 1987, killing all 159 people on board.

Malaysia Airlines said it remained “too premature for the airline to speculate (on) the origin of the flaperon,” a wing component.