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Old 12th Mar 2014, 15:38
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The Ancient Geek
 
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Will it ever be found ?

Given that no evidence has been found in the search areas we should consider the possibilities. Given that we have no real idea where the aircraft is, the potential location is limited only by available fuel and thus covers millions of square miles and we are looking for a very tiny needle in a very big haystack.

1) A crash into the ocean. The amount and nature of any surface debris will depend largly on the speed and angle of entry. Any floating debris will probably be small inconspicuous items such as seat cushions. These could easily have been missed by the existing search. If the crash was outside of the search area and on a busy shipping lane something may be spotted within weeks or months, away from shipping lanes something may wash up on shore eventually due to currents but may well be disregarded as junk. The seas are littered with flotsam and garbage so one bit of junk looks much like another.

2) A crash onto land. Any crash onto a reasonably populated area would have been reported by now but much of Southest Asia consists of forest and jungle. Any debris would be concealed by tree cover. Populations are mainly local tribes with little of no communications with the outside world.
Reports of a crash may filter out eventually but by then much of the evidence will have been recycled as free building material. Our best hope might be a painstaking examination of hi-res satellite images for evidence of recent fires.

From this we can conclude that without better evidence it is unlikely that the aircraft will be found soon. Eventually a fishermans nets may be fouled or someone may clear the right bit of forest but that could take many years.
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