@ SaturnV : IIRC
Alucia vehicle glided "far" (~10-15m) above the sea bed.
Look at the picture, imagine what you would see from this same part (recorder casing) on a pic taken vertically from 10m high ?
I'm not sure if the previous pics (phase 4) were in colours ? If B/W pics, it's even harder to notice that part as "interesting".
@ Chris Scott
"Il s'est désolidarisé sans doute sous l'effet de l'impact" avec la surface de l'eau, a expliqué à l'AFP le directeur du BEA, Jean-Paul Troadec
quote from Le Monde (
here)
Rough translation = the BEA director thinks the memory module broke apart when the plane impacted water.