"We recovered...a valve from an oxygen cylinder," Blyth said. "It is likely that that valve is from the missing cylinder."
The fragments were found close to where the missing tank was stored beneath the passenger cabin, he said.
If the valve and other small fragments are determined to have come from the cylinder, further investigation would been ordered to urgently inspect every oxygen bottle aboard its fleet of 30 Boeing 747s, which is expected to take several days.
