Jcjeant,
You brought it up about the inadequate search. Sometime in the last year, it was published that the french nuclear submarine was listening for the ping of the black boxes incorrectly with their sonar. The ping of the black boxes is at 37.5 khz, which, of course, is beyond the range of human hearing. A 5th grade science student would have known that! Just wanted to give an example of how pathetic the search effort was.
A great deal of money was spent to just go through the motions (sending a "nuclear" sub sounds impressive). It was not in France's best interest for the black boxes to be found sooner rather than later. The people were already dead, and Air France lawyers, Airbus lawyers, and the BEA were all on the same page. I remember a bunch of Airbus military tankers were about to be sold. Sure, everyone wanted to know what happened to AF447, but not just yet, and a couple of years for emotions to cool could help minimize lawsuit payouts as well.
Hate to be such a cynic, but it's life in the real world.
Thankfully, the BEA, Airbus, and Air France may not be on the same page any longer, and the industry can learn from this tradegy.