Prime Minister Tony Abbott says confirmation a piece of plane debris belongs to MH370 is a step nearer to finding out what happened to the flight.

The Malaysian Airlines Boeing 777 – that had 239 crew and passengers on board – has been missing since March 2014, but the broken wing is the first piece of evidence to be located.

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“What we have found in the western Indian Ocean does seem to indicate that the plane did come down, more or less where we thought it did,” Mr Abbott said. 

“It suggests that for the first time, we might be a little bit closer to solving this baffling mystery.”

Mr Abbott said Australia will continue to fund the search, speaking hours after his Malaysian counterpart Najib Razak announced the flaperon found on La Reunion was from MH370.

“We have invested upwards [of] $100 million into this search, I believe that is appropriate [that Australia continues funding],” Mr Abbott said.

“Not only were there six Australians on that plane, but millions of Australians, almost every Australian at some point in time is an air traveller.

“We owe it to the hundreds of millions of people who use our skies, we owe it to the 24 million Australians who use our skies, we owe it to them to try to ensure that air travel is as safe as it possibly can be, to try to get to the bottom of this terrible mystery.

“That is why the search must go on.”