consider also currents encountered during sinking and random walk spreading as the lighter debris settles. You MIGHT be able to draw some rough conclusions if you assume heavy items sank near straight down. But that's not even accurate. If the plane was making headway, even something modest like 60 mph (statute) then a one second difference in time the engines broke loose would lead to an 88' difference in starting point.
Too many variables. Too many unknowns." Precisely.
The field is so concentrated that the currents weren't very strong, were they ?
On another thread, someone posited that two items, one sinking to the bottom in 15 minutes, the other taking 30 mins,
in a ONE KNOT CURRENT, they will be separated by 1500 ft at their resting places.
That figure is strikingly close to the dimensions of the debris field, don't you agree ?
Of course I would think that quite a few pieces would have *drifted*,falling leaves-style to tha bottom, hence the *random* pattern we could observe.
Of course I might be all wrong.