atakacs:
I'm really skeptical about all those "satellite sightings" - I'm afraid the ocean is full of junk. Does anyone believe that a positive identification could be obtained on that basis only ? Short of physically retrieving the debris and matching it to the missing airliner (if possible by some serial number or other undisputable identification mean) I would be very prudent about deploying that many resources...
My guess is that, depending of course on ocean currents, it could well be that the sort of debris and junk that is found that far south is normally fishing debris rather than shipping debris. The searchers have good ocean current experts working with them, so there's every possibility that they have advice that a "wooden pallet" used for aircargo fruit exports, say, would be unusual in a fishing & not shipping debris area ...