The following figures are from the Metron analysis that was done for BEA in January 2011.
^^^^ June 1 search grids. (low level only shown.) Brazil in yellow, France in blue.
^^^^ June 3 search grids.
^^^^ June 6 search grids. Voila.
Figures for the search grids flown on June 2, 4, and 5 are omitted in this post as these were over areas remote from the crash location.
On June 1, the Brazilian search grid was possibly/probably just to the right of the crash location, but the French clearly overflew the location. What are the possible explanations for this?
a.) the French were blind, or searched under poor observational conditions.
b.) any objects floating on the surface had already moved to the west, beyond the search grid, in the current and drift by the time the French searched.
c.) objects had not yet reached the surface when the French overflew the location.
d.) the French gave erroneous data to Metron as to the spatial area covered by their June 1 search.
The reasonable conclusion would be that if you overflew a possible crash location within 24 hours of the crash and observed nothing, then that is not where you will find the airplane.
The Metron analysis notes that the ship
Douce France searched in the area of the LKP on June 1, but does not give the track of the ship.
All the current and drift reconstructions for June 1 and probably for the several days following, now appear to be badly flawed. But again these also presumed that evidence of the crash should have been spotted by the overflights on June 1 if that was within the area the plane crashed.
Here are links to the Metron analysis:
http://www.bea.aero/fr/enquetes/vol....h.analysis.pdf
And the analysis done by the drift group:
http://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00027/13777/10915.pdf