While on the subject of being charitable, there has also been an assumption made that the a/c ground speed was less than 478KTS, whereas there is a possibility that a prolonged over-speed event took place and the manner in which the a/c impacted with the sea was as a result of a deep stall induced during a recovery attempt.
I doubt the over-speed part of the above, and believe that we should be looking very closely at any of the area within the 40NM radius that has not been visited by TPL's, the REMUS AUV's and the ORION side-scan sonar (SSS). More particularly those areas that didn't receive an initial aerial search.
Also, the SNA "Emeraude" doesn't appear to have had her sonar operating at maximum efficiency in the period up to 30 June 2009, and those areas covered by her in that period deserve a closer look if they haven't been subsequently covered by other means. Without being privy to the [classified] operating depth of the "Emeraude", its not really possible to be much more charitable with regard to her efforts.
mm43