EXPERTS believe they have uncovered clues to finally reveal the location of doomed Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 nine years on.

       Scientists have hailed a "breakthrough" theory - based on barnacles clinging to plane debris - to solve one of aviation's biggest mysteries.

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       Debris from doomed flight MH370 washed ashore off Reunion Island Credit: EPA

       A new study suggests the small crustaceans' shells can be analysed to show where they first got attached to the wrecked aircraft.

       MH370 was travelling from Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia to China's capital Beijing when contact was lost and it disappeared in March 2014.

       The Boeing 777, crammed with 239 passengers and crew. dropped off Malaysian radar screens just after crossing over the South China Sea into Vietnamese airspace.

       Various theories have been offered as to what happened - including claims of a pilot's murder-suicide plot or alternatively a hijacking.

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       But experts in Florida have now published a study in the journal AGU Advances about the plane crashing into the Indian Ocean.

       They have based their findings on shards of debris confirmed to be from the plane that washed up in those waters.

       An international investigation into the missing flight cost ￡150million before being suspended in 2017.

       The new study has been led by University of South Florida evolutionary biology professor Gregory Herbert.

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       He says he was prompted into action by seeing photos of plane debris floating near Reunion Island in the Indian Ocean, off Africa's south-eastern coast.

       He began emailing search investigators pointing out the barnacles shown attached to the aircraft parts could prove crucial.

       Professor Herbert explained how the daily-grown shells produce internal layers like tree rings, which indicate what the surrounding water temperature was like when formed.

       The team worked with experts from Ireland's University of Galway to compare the shells with analysis of where the debris drifted.

       Professor Herbert says some of the earliest barnacles have helped them "reconstruct a complete drift path back to the crash origin".

       He now insists their approach could help pinpoint where exactly the plane might have crashed in the so-called "seventh arc" scrutinised in a north-south corridor identified by the now-stalled inquiry.

       His team analysed smaller barnacles attached to the debris but believes the approach could be applied to older, larger crustaceans which would have stuck to the plane earlier on.

       Previous potential explanations for the plane's disappearance have included a mass murder-suicide by pilot Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah.

       Another expert Richard Godfrey believes the pilot feared he was being followed so flew the jet in circles, before landing the aircraft at high speed to help make sure it was lost forever.

       Ex-French Air Force air traffic controller Gilles Diharce has suggested the pilot tried to carry out a "soft ditching" - a controlled emergency landing - as the plane descended into the water.

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       Satellite images unearthed earlier this year indicated the plane could have crashed into the South China Sea, far from the main search area.

       There have also been theories that the flight was hijacked or else was in "cruising mode" when crashing.

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       The Malaysia Airlines flight was travelling from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing in March 2014 Credit: EPA 5

       Parts of the plane have been discovered in the southern Indian Ocean Credit: AFP 5

       Experts have been examined parts to see whether barnacles can help locate the plane Credit: EPA 5

       A ￡150million investigation into the mystery was suspended in 2017 Credit: Reuters