Well, UNCTUOUS, that flogs away at a different problem, which in this case would have made no practical difference. It points up a potential laxity on the part of the Brazilians and a serious laxity on the part of Dakar. (Note I said potential. I am willing to believe what we saw was a Brazilian presumption of professionality on the part of the Dakar operators who weren't very professional.)
Perhaps yet another fire needs to be lighted under the behinds of the Dakar operators. (Rumors I've heard indicate they are vastly improved from a decade ago or more. What you see is the improved Dakar. So imagine what it must have been then!)
However, in the case present the extra hours before SAR started would not have materially changed the overall results. Some bodies might have been noticed were the SAR aircraft able to get into the area and safely fly around looking at the surface of the ocean. But nobody was likely to be alive and the planes could not effectively search until the storm had abated. If I recall correctly reports from the first days of the aircraft based search included words about how difficult the conditions were due to the abating storm.
Now, there are some other things I draw from this part of the report that hit on my professional interest in RF communications. There are some techniques for RF communications that can ensure that if there is a frequency that can work the aircraft is aware of it and the ground is listening for it. It's a military technique called ALE, Automatic Link Establishment. But selling that technology to the aircraft industry will be difficult and cannot take place here.
I'm just pointing out that almost any part of the BEA report opens avenues for improvement of one kind or another. This is, again, probably not the place to flog these issues, dead horses or not. I could add some notes in private messages if somebody is really interested.
JD-EE