GPS?
I've been thinking, I don't know about water crashes statisticis, but given the possibility of the tail fin floating above the water, wouldn't it be extremely low cost to deploy small gps trackloggers on the fins?
I know that planes aren't made to crash and it wouldn't work all the time. But with AF447, if there were such a device attached to the fin, with a battery and recording its position every minute or so, tracklogging its gps position up to i.e. 30 days, we could surely pinpoint the exact impact point and the surface drifting currents by the subsequent tracklogging.
It wouldn't necessarily need to be attached to the fin, maybe just a device that's easily detachable and floats on impact?
Just my 2 cents...