Originally Posted by
Machinbird
Fresh from the accident scene, muddy, without a pinger attached.
Somehow, I don't think they were keeping an Allen wrench handy to immediately remove the pinger as soon as the unit was discovered.
I don't see any reason why a team looking specifically for the FDR shouldn't have the (simple) means to remove the pinger, given that that's SOP.
Maybe they didn't need it, maybe they did.