Australian authorities Thursday said they were "confident we're looking in the right area" for MH370 and would find the aircraft after Malaysia's prime minister confirmed debris found on an Indian Ocean island was from the missing flight.

"(The La Reunion find) is consistent with all the work we've done so we're confident that we're looking in the right area and we'll find the aircraft there," Martin Dolan, chief commissioner of the Australian Transport Safety Bureau, told ABC NewsRadio.

Dolan said it was "too early to tell" what had happened to the passenger jet which disappeared 17 months ago, adding that "close examination is what's necessary to access how much we can learn".