AF 447 Search to resume

[paull]

Are we too critical of that first search?

It occurs to me that a search & RESCUE operation does not necessarily focus on the most likely location, but the most likely survivable location. Taking an extreme case, if someone were lost in a sea where survival in water that long was unlikely, then no matter how improbable it is, you would favour searching any islands first. In the case of AF 447, you would search in a manner that gave the best chance of quickly finding a large number of survivors, therefore ruling out any 'it fell like a stone at the LKP' and is now sitting at the bottom of the sea' scenarios.
Of course, once RESCUE is ruled out, most likely position then dictates the place and style/speed of search, but we must not be too critical of the initial response, it had a different purpose.