People on this island are being asked to look out for more debris. Hear why this debris could tell investigators what happened in a planes final moments. All of this as the families of 370 wait for answers. This is cnns special live coverage. This is cnn breaking news. Im john berman. Im kate bolduan. We are following breaking news at this hour in the search for Malaysia Airlines flight mh370. Rene marsh is being told by her source that is boeing investigators now have in their words a high level of confidence that the debris found on reunion island comes from a boeing 777 jet, and thats not just because of the photos that theyve been analyzing but because of a part number that corresponds to a 777. Now, they are confident, but they still want to get their hands on it to take a closer look to make the final determines nation. That piece youre looking at right there, it is a flaperon. Its a piece that appears on the wing of a boeing 777. Again, a high degree of confidence it comes from a 777. Why thats important, no other 777 has gone down in the indian ocean. So if it is from a 777, you can reach its conclusion it is most probably from mh370. Malaysia airlines right now dispatching a team to the site to investigate though theyre sending them through paris and depending on Seat Availability they wont arrive at the island until tomorrow. Our robyn kriel is already there on reunion island. Cnn has the only tell advievisiw reporting from that island. Robyn, why dont you give us the latest. Reporter yes. Were hearing that Malaysian Airlines officials should be arriving tomorrow and investigators will be part of that group. Were also we understand that malaysia plans to send a vessel to this area to try to patrol up and down these seas to try to see, john and kate, if there is any more debris inside or at least just off the coast of reunion. That piece of wing flap, a flaperon its called, discovered yesterday by people who were clearing the beach of rubbish or trash. They found that piece of debris. They brought it ashore, they let the authorities know. Those authorities then distributed the word that theyd found something that looked to be a part of an aircraft, and ever since then the news has been coming in that, yes, it does look like a boeing 777. The Prime Minister from malaysia stating it is highly likely to be a boeing 777, the boeing 777, and we have just learned also that images of that aircraft washed up on the island here, reunion island, do match schematic drawings for the right wing flaperon from a boeing 777 aircraft. A photograph of the interior of that part published by a french language reunion island news site here in reunion island shows that sen sitenciled compo number thats almost like a vin number for vehicles. Robyn kriel, thank you so much. A lot to get through. A lot breaking regarding the confirmation the verification process of figuring out that boeing 777, that this part is likely with high degree of confidence coming from a boeing 777. Were going to take a closer look at what that means, but first lets take a closer look at this part of debris. Our tom foreman is taking a look at that. Tom, you have been looking at where this part of debris could be coming from and what were learning more about this. Tell us more. What we have really is a case of evidence stacking up about this piece of debris ever since it showed up. Its roughly the right size that it ought to be. We have some idea now if we look at this piece of equipment and we compare it to a model of this plane, which is essentially what the engineers are doing because they know it very, very well, theyre saying if you rotate it around, it would fit very nicely along the back edge of one of these wings like this. Its where it would normally fit. They see other details to tell them it fits there. If we went through a list of criteria here, why is anticipation so high . It is the right type. It appears to be something that belongs on a 777. It is the right color. It is the right condition meaning its all covered with all sorts of barnacles which would be consistent with floating in water for close to 500 days. Were talking about these numbers right now, they have part numbers that are partial identifiers but every piece on a big airplane ultimately has a serial number on it. This is a seat cushion from another plane. You can see the numbers there. If they can find the serial numbers on this piece that they have found, this new piece of the wing or what seems to be a piece of the wing, if they get that and it matches the 777 that is missing, thats the end of it. All the speculation that the plane landed on island or was hijacked should be over. Tom foreman, i will take it right here. Officials at boeing say they have taken a lock ok at a compot number on this flaperon and with a high degree of certainty they believe its a 777. That coming from rene marsh. Rene joins us right now. What more are you learning . Reporter john, this is different than what we had yesterday. Yesterday a source close to the investigation saying that based on the photos in appearance, this piece looked like it was a part of a boeing 777, but now were seeing the bar raised a little bit here today. A source is telling me a couple minutes ago that based on these photos, investigators or engineers at boeing now say that, and im quoting from this source, there is a component number that corresponds to a 777 part. So that ratchets it up a little bit here, their confidence level obviously a bit higher because now were moving from saying this appears or looks like the design of a boeing 777, a portion of the wing, and now were at the point where boeing engineers are now saying they believe they see a component number that may be a match to a boeing 777. So obviously thats a more tangible, thats stronger evidence that perhaps this could belong to a 777. Of course, all of that being said, they are simply looking at photos at this point. What they want to do is look at it with their own eyes so that they are 100 sure that the numbers theyre seeing in this photo is actually the true numbers indeed. But, again, the headline is its not just about appearance now. They are looking at specific numbers that leads them to believe that this is indeed a part of a boeing 777. Rene marsh for us in washington. All signs pointing to this being part of a 777, including now component numbers on the wing. They want to take a closer look. Lets bring our aviation attorney justin green and cnn safety analyst david souci a former faa accident investigators. Justin, youre here with us in studio. It has a number, a component number, they say that corresponds to a boeing 777. If it is a part from a 777, almost has to be from mh370, yes . Thats absolutely correct. After i left you this morning, i spent the morning talking to the families who i represent from the crash and what they want to know is 100 accuracy. Thats what theyre waiting on. After all of the raising of hopes and dashing of hopes theyve gone through, i think thats absolutely understandable. David, on this breaking news that rene is bringing to us, theyre talking about the difference here between a component number, the fact its not the same as a part number. Its stenciled inside the interior of the part. Can you lay this out . When youre investigating a crash, what are you looking for and what does that indicate for you . Well, the term component really indicates that its part of an assembly. Now, the assembly is something that is serialized. Each of the component parts, each of the small parts that put together this assembly or make up the assembly have part numbers on them and those part numbers start with 113w. So its very finite. Its not like theres 15 different numbers and maybe you cant read this or maybe you can. This is going to be a very specific thing theyre looking for. They have already confirmed the dimensions or they wouldnt be flying out there. So its very significant they have come to that conclusion and theyre going out there to physically look at it. I think this is just a matter of course, a matter of process at this point. Justin, you have talked to the families and, of course, the investigators say they want to see it with their own eyes and touch it with their own hands, but are these families beginning to accept the reality that this is a piece of the plane . I think that theyre facing that they have to. I dont think that theyre there yet. For 500 days they have been holding out hope for a miracle and i dont think theyre going to give up on their hope until the official word and i think it will probably come in a couple days. David, when youre looking at this part, not only is it important to get the news from boeing investigators that they think this is part of a boeing 777, im sure youre also looking at from your vast experience as a crash investigator looking into what this debris can tell you, the tears, if theres burns or the way it has warn down over time. What do you see in the picture or what would you be looking for if you got your hands on this debris . The most significant thing you can see just from the photographs and the fact that the leading edge of this component or this assembly is not significantly damaged. What that tells you is that the front edge of the wing did not have an abrupt stop as it would have if it went in nose first and hit the water quickly and at a high rate of velocity. What would happen is this particular component would be shoved forward into that wing and would have caused damage along the front leading edge of the part. So that gives you a lot of information as to how this aircraft may have entered the water. All right. David soucie, justin green, stick around with us. Our breaking news just into cnn. Representatives from boeing say they have taken a look at the component number inside this piece of debris on reunion island and with a high degree of confidence they do say its a 777. A Major Development. Stay with us. Much more coming up next. Tion th for the sky. Thats that new gear feeling. All hp ink, buy one get one 50 off. Office depot officemax. Gear up for school. Gear up for great. Heart healths important. So you may. Take an omega3 supplement. 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With xarelto® there is no regular blood monitoring, and no known dietary restrictions. Treatment with xarelto® was the right move for us. Ask your doctor about xarelto®. If you want a paint without harmful chemicals. If you want a paint thats safer for your family, and the environment. Only this can. Natura from benjamin moore. Paint like no other. Certified asthma and allergy friendly by the asthma and Allergy Foundation of america. Our breaking news just noments a moments ago. Boeing representatives say the pictures theyve looked at of this debris, theres a component number inside that flaperon that coincides with the part from a boeing 777. They believe with a high degree of certainty it is a 777 part. They want to see it in person, the verification process continuing, but a Major Development and a big step forward in trying to get answers for all of the families of mh370. Were joined once again by aviation attorney and former military pilot justin green as well as cnns safety analyst david soucie, a former faa accident investigators. Justin, as were looking at this breaking news again, you were saying to us in the commercial break that really everyone is going to rely on boeing investigators on the brains at boeing to confirm if they think this is their part or not. And the ntsb would have boeing as a Party Representative to the investigation, and boeing role is as the expert on this airplane is to help the investigators. So boeing is the people thats going to really decide not decide but determine whether this part is the same if it is a boeing 777 part, when boeing says yes, how hard is it to make the leap from that to mh370 . I think they could try to match the serial number. Whether thats possible i dont know, but clearly process of elimination. I think you have one missing part and you got one 777 part thats found. I think its pretty clear it would have to be mh370. Now we have this piece of debris. Authorities on reunion island are putting up helicopters in order to comb the coast to look for more debris. Does this surprise you at this point that just a single piece of debris has been found, that other pieces of debris arent nearby . Does that tell you anything . You know, its counterintuitive to think there wouldnt be parts everywhere right there in that location but if you really look at the distances traveled in doing the studies weve done years and years ago back with the air france investigation even when parts surface, they disburse really quickly. Its not surprising to me individual parts would show up miles and even tens, hundreds of miles away from each other rather than grouping together. Thats just not the way things float in the ocean. So, david, this part, it could tell us definitively the plane wept down in the indian ocean. It could tell you some things about how the plane tore apart, but there are still some things it does not tell you. Theres a significant gap between what this part tells us and what it doesnt. There are so many questions that will still be out there. At best this just gives us that conclusion that the aircraft did go down in the indian ocean, that there was some break apart. What it does tell you though is that the break apart, the impact into the water we would know a little bit more about whether it was a significant impact, in other words a straight in or if it had some sort of a ditching approach to the water, but people are already drawing conclusions about that but thats not even definitive. Theres no reason to know, for example, that if it was a ditching, whether it was under control of human hand or not. Thats just not possible to determine, especially when we just have this one part. Absolutely. But as many experts, as you have been pointing out, justin, this piece, if it is a flaperon, it seems largely intact, and from your perspective as a pilot, walk us through what a flaperon does, which is what you think it could lead us to understand about what was happening at the time it went into the water. A flaperon, everyone is familiar with the flaps that go down when an airplane is landing. People may or may not be familiar with a device called an air lawn which helps the airplane turn. A flaperon is kind of both of those devices. It does features of the flaps when its landing but it also helps control the airplane in yaw and stabilize the airplane during flight. Now that they have this, is there any reverse engineering that can go on . How helpful is it that its 2300 miles away from where theyre looking . The reverse engineering as far as the drift patterns, i dont think there could be anything conclusively derived from where its located. There were two major, major storms in this period of time that went through this area and could have disrupted even what you would think of as the currents and because its floating as well, even the wind currents can change the direction of the drift, which we may or may not have real specific idea of where those winds were during this time. I put a very low probability on whether this would help us in determining where that aircraft actually is resting on the bottom of the ocean. Thats fascinating. Thank you so much. Stick with us. Well have much more on our breaking news in a moment. Boeing investigators now have a high level of confidence that debris found on reunion island because of a component number inside of it they believe it does come from a boeing 777. Much more of our special coverage after this. Uthis isnt the mostne efficient way for people or air to travel. Awww ducts produce uneven temperatures and energy loss. 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The plane took off on march 8th, 2014, went off radar an hour into the flight. At this point the search stuck right around malaysia. Satellite company enmarsat communicated the plane communicated with the systems for hours after that and they predicted the plane might have gone down here in this arc so they moved the search closer to australia. Crews were making a detailed map of the ocean floor but nothing but false alarms have turned up until today. In order it get to reunion island, the degree had to travel from australia or malaysia on the indian ocean gyre, currents that spin counterclockwise. Were clearly on the experts. Tim taylor is a Sea Operations specialist joinin