KUALA LUMPUR (THE STAR/ASIA NEWS NETWORK) - The eldest child of MH370 chief steward Andrew Nari could not control her grief when she received the news confirming that the flaperon found on an Indian Ocean island last week was from the missing plane.
Ms Maira Elizabeth Nari said: "For now, there is nothing I can say about what had happened to my father.
"I do not know what I am supposed to do after this," she said between sobs.
Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak confirmed that the debris found on Reunion Island a week ago was from flight MH370.
Another relative of one of the MH370 victims was surprised with the Datuk Seri Najib's announcement.
Mr Selamat Omar, 62, said he least expected it as the flaperon was found far from the location where the plane was reported to have crashed in the southern Indian Ocean over a year ago.
"This is beyond belief... because it is so far from the supposed crash site.
"But I still accept this as fate which has been pre-determined by Allah and hope the Malaysian government will continue with the search for more evidence," he told Bernama at his Felda Bukit Mendi home here.
Mr Selamat, who is the father of passenger Mohd Khairul Amri, 29, was also relieved with the confirmation, hoping that this would lead to other evidence being found.
"The discovery of even a piece of cloth will suffice to give closure to the families of victims who are still hoping for the bodies of their loved ones to be found," he said.
Mr Azrai Izet, 39, the husband of passenger Fadzilah Abd Rahim, declined to comment when contacted.
The Malaysia Airlines jet disappeared on March 8 last year, inexplicably veering off course en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people on board, sparking a colossal but ultimately fruitless multinational hunt for the aircraft.
Last week's discovery of a 2m-long wing part called a flaperon on the French Indian Ocean island of La Reunion has provided the first glimmer of hope for relatives desperate for answers.
Ms Sara Weeks, the sister of MH370 passenger Paul Weeks of New Zealand, said the confirmation ended "a week of turmoil".
"We've had 17 months of nothing... so actually finding something is the first step towards pinpointing where it is," Ms Weeks told the Fairfax New Zealand media group.
Some families said the confirmation was not enough to lay the matter to rest, as they reiterated demands to know why the plane went off course, flying for hours after its communications and tracking systems were shut down, in what remains one of the biggest mysteries in the history of aviation.
"Now I want to know where the main body of the plane is so that we can take out the passengers and get the black box so we can know what happened. Only that, for us, will be full closure," said Ms Jacquita Gonzales, wife of MH370 chief steward Patrick Gomes.