The containers have obviously been removed once on board the search vessel.
Is it not de-rigeur to leave such items as complete and untouched as possible post recovery?
== Debris distribution ==
Something not asked so far... viz debris distribution. If (and only if) a cruise alt. breakup occurred (ejecting much of what has been found), then...
Having mulled over what sort of distances lighter debris might be spread over falling from 35,000 ft, using 'back of fag packet' sums, something like 5 to 10 miles might be the maximum to be expected, making a few (scary but not too extreme) estimates of thermal updraft and winds aloft.
Thus if two (light) items travelled in opposite directions,
as a first stab, one wouldn't expect them to be more than 10 to 20 miles apart..
Happy to be shot down, but I rather like '
some' numbers to work with, rather than none...