After MH370 disappeared from radar screens, experts analysed data from faint "pings" the aircraft sent to satellites to pinpoint its last known location.
It was this information that identified the search area in the southern Indian Ocean, west of Perth.
Charitha Pattiaratchi, Professor of Coastal Oceanography at the University of Western Australia, told Reuters that models of ocean currents are consistent with debris moving from that search area to Reunion.
"Our model results that we did last year predicted that within 18-24 months after the crash, it was a possibility that it would have ended up within that region," he said.