Tiny sea creatures can reveal MH370 crash site, say scientists

One of the greatest aviation mysteries of the modern era is still the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370. With 239 people on board, the aircraft vanished from radar on March 8, 2014, while traveling from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.

The jet is believed to have crashed somewhere in the Indian Ocean, but it hasn’t turned up despite a ten-year, multi-national search that cost over 100 million pounds and covered 46,300 square miles.

According to a Metro report, scientists are now focusing on microscopic marine life because they think it may hold the key to pinpointing the crash location.

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Barnacles were discovered adhering to the first piece of wreckage that was positively identified as being from MH370. A flaperon from the plane’s right wing was among the wreckage that washed up on Reunion Island, off the coast of Africa, a year after the disaster. The designation 657 BB was stenciled on the debris.

The metal flaps that run along the tail edge of the wing and are visible through the windshield as the plane maneuvers are called flaperons.

Scientists believe that barnacles will be able to assist them in this regard because, similar to tree rings, the shells of these tiny monsters contain a record of their life that, if decoded, may allow researchers to trace the path the creatures took on the flaperon backwards to the impact site. Satellites and radars have been scanning the suspected crash site for years, but they have been unable to pinpoint the exact location of the plane.

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