The Air France captain was flying at 3,000 metres (10,000 feet) towards the Reunion's Roland-Garros airport when he spotted the debris around 70km (44 miles) away from the north of the island.
The sighting comes just two weeks after French officials confirmed debris discovered on July 29 was from the missing Boeing 777.
The plane carrying 239 passengers disappeared on March 8 last year while travelling from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.
The pilot, flying from Paris to Reunion, said he had seen a "white object" in the Indian Ocean at 9.38am approximately 44 miles away from Reunion which could possibly be debris from the missing jet.
Siva Vadivelou, assistant director of the French Civil Aviation Authority in Reunion, said it must have been a large object for the captain to have seen it from such a high altitude.
Local police confirmed armed forces flew over the southern zone of the Indian Ocean in a Casa marine surveillance aircraft and that a vessel was also diverted to the area.
But no trace of the debris was found, despite good search conditions.
A police spokesman said: "The plane flew over the zone at low altitude for an hour where the initial sighting was reported and took drift calculations into account.
"Despite favourable sea conditions, no debris was found in the zone."
The Australian Transport Bureau is leading the search for the missing MH370 jet.
Investigators believe the flight went down in the southeastern Indian Ocean and searchers have focused their search for the bulk of the plane at the bottom of the ocean off western Australia.
Australian officials said they were confident the plane would be found in the search area, which is scheduled to have been completely combed by the end of June 2016.
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