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[FluidFlow]

VS drift

What matters, next... review the VS drift again making the assumption it originated at the crash site. Can that correlate with the estimated backtracked position of the slick?

Cant do exactly that due to lack of info. But the VS was sighted 4.1Nm south and recovered 5.3 Nm south of the ‘body drift centreline’ with respect to time. It was sighted 9.2Nm west and recovered 14.2Nm west of the ideal body centreline (noting there was a large fanning out by this stage). It does show the VS moving west relatively quickly (4.95hrs and 5.1 Nm or 1 knot different to a body) so appears to suggest that there is a reasonable (? or perhaps statistically irrelevant) probability that the VS did not enter the water west of the impact site. (The assumption here is that they were both at the slick 30 hrs after the crash which is also unlikely to be exactly correct – cant to the maths otherwise).
IMO this implies the VS was still attached until impact or very close to impact but the maths is not strong re this point and perhaps not even relevant. The bending of the frames below the VS mounts is likely stronger evidence the VS fell off due to its foundations being damaged by water pressure than this drift ‘evidence’.
FF