The disappearance of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 remains one of the most perplexing aviation mysteries in recent years. On March 8, 2014, the plane disappeared from the radar while flying from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, carrying 239 people. It is presumed to have crashed somewhere in the Indian Ocean, but despite a 10-year multi-national search spanning 46,300 square miles and costing more than 100 million pounds, the jet remains missing. According to a Metro report, scientists are now focusing on tiny aquatic animals, believing that they may reveal the exact location of the crash.
Barnacles were discovered clinging to the first piece of debris identified as MH370
Barnacles were discovered clinging to the first piece of debris, identified as MH370. The wreckage, marked 657 BB 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 disaster. Flaperons are metal flaps that move up and down along the tail edge of the wing when the plane moves, as viewed via the window. Satellites and radars have been scanning the likely crash region for years, but the plane’s exact location has yet to be determined. Scientists believe barnacles can help them in this way.
The reason is that, like tree rings, these small monsters’ shells preserve a record of their lives. According to New York Magazine, scientists believe that if this information is decrypted, they may be able to track their passage on the flaperon back to the collision location. “We stumbled upon something that gave much more certainty about the whereabouts of the plane than we anticipated,” David Griffin, who led a team of Australian government experts tasked with solving the case, told the site. These barnacles, named Lepas antisera, have previously assisted researchers in tracking “ghost nets” that harm wildlife, locating missing boats, and even investigating inexplicable deaths.