Originally Posted by "FlexibleResponse:
Very good investigative work! I think you also need to take into account that the human body does not float in seawater until about 72 hours after death. Then there should be some allowance for the time from establishing positive buoyancy to float from the wreckage at the bottom of the ocean up to the surface. Again some allowance should be made for the average sea current during the ascent time (unlikely to be the same as the surface current). So finally it could be possible that the surface drift time before discovery of the first body could have been less than 24 hours...this might put the wreckage very close to the flight plan track?
Hi and thank you,
This is an interesting point which may indeed affect my estimation but, as a matter of fact, the human body, with a gravity below 1 (clear water), is naturaly buoyant. In salted sea water it is even more buoyant but temperature, etc. are other factors changing sea water density. On the other hand, there will be also some variation with the sex, age, clothes, mutilations, etc. of the victims. So several paramaters will affect how much of the body will surface (very few percent indeed until the decomposition process is well advanced). Next, decomposition at sea will start to increase buoyancy immediately following death. There is no need to wait for 72 hrs, it is just a matter of equilibrum between the body state and the sea density.
S~
Olivier
(Note: I already tried to post twice an answer but my posts didn't show up after many hours. I hope this one will go thru.)