Are you still uncertain as to the approximate location of the debris? The plan was to work north to south across the area not searched in Phase 2/3 that is within the 20nm radius, then to proceed outward, as required.
No, not uncertain - just responding to a question. I think it is north, slats11 said he originally thought more likely to south - just setting out some of my reasoning & the assumptions on which it is based. (Trying to keep an open mind.)
searching the remaining north sector doesn't take a long time (2 weeks?) and they would then be better positioned to expand the search south, without having to run north, again.
Makes sense; thanks.
One other thing I had missed until now (and I don't recall seeing it in the thread already) -- look at the sonar image in the BEA 4/4 report (p2):
The red arrow at the top points north. I'm no expert on sidescan sonar, but doesn't it look like the wreckage & the debris field runs approximately along the east/west axis?
Would correlate with being left of planned course - but I suppose there may well be little correlation between final resting orientation and orientation at impact for such a deep descent?