Mr Optimistic
.... what about the earlier question about ACARS position reporting: I thought the early search phase was a bit slow to home in - how was this so if position is known.
To put it bluntly, there was an AOC position transmitted by ACARS at 02:10:30z, but with the a/c having made a GS of 467KTS between that position and the previous one sent 10 minutes earlier, that is a lot of water to cover especially if you don't know which direction(s) were being flown in the next 4 minutes.
However, and it is a point that Bearfoil is making, the kinetic energy (m*v2)/2 has somehow been swatted out when you consider on the evidence that we have been presented, i.e. the aircraft descended almost vertically with a small but positive pitch attitude and little or no bank angle over the last minute at a terminal velocity of around 90KTS (9,000 ft/min). In other words, that part of the flight was not "controlled" and indications are that the tail was rotating to port on impact, which could translate into a "flat spin" where the spin motion along with the lost lift (now a drag vortex) combined to provide the attitudes at which it impacted with the water.
If that is anywhere near right, then what was the descent profile between FL350 and FL090. Furthermore, how did it "burn off" over 400KTS in 3 minutes?
Something violent and far beyond the ordinary happened in the air before the water entered the picture.
Your other point regarding why it took so long to locate anything. The usual felons, "false leads" sent everyone off at a tangent, and by the time they did get back to a proper grid search, the floating evidence had moved on.
mm43