Originally posted by wes_wall ...
Not to throw a dart, but it just seems to me that the search effort was behind the power curve from the beginning.
The Brazilian military were responsible for the initial search, and when working at a distance over the ocean, "tangents" are not easily avoided. Debris sighted from the air needs to be investigated at a seaborne level and that all takes time. It's that precious time in which a search gets misdirected that creates the difficulties in resolving what was where and when much later.
L'Emeraude was the only known sub operating in the search phase up to 10 July, and I don't think that they were operating at anywhere near their maximum [classified] depth.
mm43