The wing flap found in Tanzania came from MH370

A large piece of metal debris found off the coast of Tanzania has been confirmed as a part of missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370.

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) made the announcement this evening, after examining the outboard flap at its facilities in Canberra.

In its findings, the ATSB said “a date stamp associated with one of the part numbers indicated manufacture on 23 January 2002, which was consistent with the 31 May 2002 delivery day for 9M-MRO.”

"Further examination of the debris will continue in hopes that evidence may be uncovered which may provide new insight into the circumstances surrounding flight MH370."

So far the confirmation does not appear to have offered any clues as to how the Malaysia Airlines aircraftwent down en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 passengers and crew on board.

MH370 is believed to have crashed into the Indian Ocean on March 8, 2014, but an extensive deep-sea hunt off the coast of Western Australia is drawing to a close with nothing yet found.

The Australian-led operation to find MH370 is scouring the seafloor within a remote 120,000-square-kilometre belt of the Indian Ocean where authorities believe the passenger jet went down.

But as the search draws to a close victims' families fear it could be called off.

While the Australian-led search has been so far unsuccessful, several pieces of debris that apparently drifted thousands of kilometres towards Africa have been identified as definitely or probably from MH370.

Those finds have confirmed that the plane crashed in the ocean but have so far shed no light on why, which has lead to questions over whether the official search is focused in the right area.

An American amateur investigator, Blaine Gibson, handed other possible MH370 debris to Australian officials earlier this week, saying several pieces were blackened by flames, raising the prospect of a flash fire on board.

Mr Gibson, a lawyer, who has travelled the world trying to solve the MH370 mystery, told reporters the debris had washed up in Madagascar.

9news