Phase One was what we were expecting in the first weeks after the crash: immediate evidence, rapidly recoverable.
Phase Two would have brought huzzas for the technology that found the aircraft so soon. Its lack of success has messed us about a little.
Phase Three is what we’re hoping BEA, AF and AI have the bottle for, a long dreary process with some sort of find that encourages more searching, because not all the pieces may have settled in one place on the ocean floor.
I’m still hopeful that a serious search will continue, as opposed to one just for show. But one can only wonder at all the pros and cons going through the deciding minds at BEA, Airbus Industrie and Air France: consign the accident to history and move on based on assumptions, hoping that people will forget, or some right out and say how far they’re willing to go to establish what actually happened.