>If you want to believe the 40 degrees circle but do not want to believe the gap then that is fine.
By inspection of the map the 40 degree line goes pretty close to the last acars message - if you assume ditching and the plane floats for a couple of hours then you end up back at the starting point for the search.
I think we all want to see the accuracy of the 40 degree reading and the previous pings - if they are all around the 40 degree mark +/- accuracy then I'd say they are barking up the wrong tree.