time
Looked at the Woods Hole site and their equipment pretty well booked out for 2010...which jibes with the poster upstream remarks about these type of top notch vessels pretty well tied up and not available on the fly routinely. I would also think that the time frame stated may be a period of better weather in the area also.
I also agree with the 'not a vs b' comment upthread...aviation accidents and their full and complete investigations benefit everyone. Incomplete investigations more often than not only create more questions than answers and thereby an even larger area of uncertainty.
I was surprised by the minimal assistance from other major military powers both right after the incident and later. Yes...it was a Brazil and French show and perhaps that held back some assistance besides the US P3 and the towed array. When the pingers were still active I would think it would have been a great training scenario....and would be even now. The US Navy brought in Cdr Ballard to find the Scorpion and Thresher...and that same Navy owns Alvin from Woods Hole....there is a lot of US parts in that aircraft and it has been under consideration as a replacement tanker for the USAF so there are good reasons for further participation.