MH370: Barnacles may have grown for up to one year - expert

A French newspaper had recently examined the barnacles found attached to a wreckage discovered at Reunion Island in the Indian Ocean, reported online portal nzherald.co.nz.

Le Journal de l'ile de la Réunion reported that an academician from the Naval School of Brest, France Joseph Poupin who conducted the examination said the barnacles belonged to the 'Lepa Anatifera' species, which live in warm and hot waters.

He added that barnacles grow at a rate of one centimeter to two centimeter per year.

Poupin also said based on the photos shown by the French publication, the barnacles have been growing on the debris for several months or a year.

Meanwhile, Australian search authorities Friday said they were "increasingly confident" plane debris that washed up on a tiny Indian Ocean island is from missing flight MH370, with formal identification possible within 24 hours.

The two-metre (six-foot) long piece of wreckage -- found on the French island of La Reunion -- was expected to arrive in France on Saturday where it will be analysed.

Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370, which had 239 people on board, was travelling from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing when it mysteriously turned off course and vanished on March 8 last year. No trace of the plane has been found despite a massive search.