Obviously, I don't travel in the back very often, but surely you can reach the door jettison handle when you are in the seat row which (on the 225) faces backwards and is in the main door zone, albeit the handle is pretty much above your head and so out normal view?
Try it next time you're in the hangar, wearing three layers of clothing, an immersion suit (ours, not yours) and a LAPP jacket. The handle is not above your head.
HF - no, but since there is a sonar pinger on the CVFDR, I am surprised they haven't found it yet. Strange. Does anyone know the range, and effectiveness of direction finding, of such a sonar pinger?
Or indeed the life of the battery. Is the data not in the ODM, or civ equivalent?