Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak confirmed in an announcement early Thursday that the debris discovered on Reunion Island belongs to MH370, the Malaysian Airlines passenger plane that went missing en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8, 2014.
Prior to discovering the debris on the French overseas island in the southwestern Indian Ocean, a massive surface and underwater hunt had failed to find the plane, making it one of the biggest mysteries in the aviation history.
The list below is a brief chronology of the search for MH370.
-- Aug 6, 2015
Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak confirmed that the debris found on Reunion Island is of MH370, citing a joint conclusion by an international investigation team that involved experts from Australia, China, France and Malaysia.
-- Aug. 5, 2015
Investigators and experts arrived in a military laboratory in Toulouse to analyze the probable missing MH370 wreckage.
-- Aug. 4, 2015
A piece of plastic debris was found on the northern coast of Reunion Island.
-- Aug. 2, 2015
Malaysian Transport Minister Liow Tiong Lai officially confirmed that the flaperon discovered on Reunion Island has been identified as being part of a Boeing 777 aircraft.
A piece of metal debris was found along the northern coast of Reunion Island.
-- Aug. 1, 2015
The debris suspected to be part of MH370 arrived in Paris and was later transferred to Toulouse for further analysis.
-- July 31, 2015
A part number on the piece of debris found on Reunion Island confirmed that the plane is a Boeing 777, the same type as MH370.
Meanwhile, search resumed for more debris on Reunion Island.
-- July 29, 2015
An aircraft wreckage was found on Reunion Island, which experts believed could be part of the missing MH370.
-- April 10, 2014
Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott said the search area for the missing MH370 had been narrowed to a grid of 40 km by 50 km in the southern Indian Ocean, after the Australian navy vessel Ocean Shield detected signals believed to be from MH370's black box recorder.
-- March 24, 2014
Malaysia announced that new analysis of satellite data suggests MH370 "ends" in the southern Indian Ocean and Malaysia Airlines told relatives of the passengers the plane has been "lost" and "none of those on board survived".
The U.S. Pacific Command ordered the Pacific Fleet to move a black box locator into the region in case debris is located.
