Scientists Say Tiny Sea Creatures Can Reveal MH370 Crash Site

The disappearance of Malaysia Airlines plane MH370 remains the biggest aviation mysteries in recent times. The plane, on its way from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, disappeared from radar on March 8, 2014, with 239 people on board. It is thought to have crashed somewhere in the Indian Ocean, but despite 10-year multi-national search in which 46,300 square mile area was scanned and more than 100 million pounds spent, the plane remains missing. But now, tiny sea creatures have come into the focus of scientists who believe that they could reveal the exact site of the crash, as per a report in Metro.

These creatures, called barnacles, were found clinging to the first piece of debris confirmed to be from MH370. The debris, with the marking 657 BB written with a stencil, was a flaperon from the plane's right wing that washed up on Reunion Island off the coast of Africa a year after the crash.

Flaperons are the metal flaps running along the wing's tail edge which can be seen from the window moving up and down as the plane manoeuvres.

Satellites and radars have scanned the suspected area of crash for years, but have been unable to pinpoint the exact location of the plane. Scientists believe barnacles will be able to help them in this regard.

The reason: the shells of these tiny monsters contain a record of their life, like the rings of a tree. Scientists say if this information is decoded, it may be possible to trace their path on the flaperon backwards to the impact site, as per New York Magazine.

"We stumbled upon something that gave much more certainty about the whereabouts of the plane than we anticipated," the outlet quoted David Griffin, who led a team of Australian government scientists tasked with solving the case, as saying.

Called Lepas anatifera, these barnacles have previously helped researchers track "ghost nets" that endanger wildlife, find missing boats and even investigate mysterious deaths.