Originally Posted by
Tourist
Albatros
Do you really think that two very old aircraft are a more valid comparison than Sully in the river?
The 777 is a tank as has been proved by various recent accidents.
The airframe does not have to be immaculate to sink with little trace, merely hold onto its larger parts (wings/tail) and the pressure hull must be sufficiently intact to retain all the poor buggers inside plus cushions. That is not outwith the bounds of possibility.
p.s. Can the people who keep saying that water is as hard as concrete at speed please stop being silly. It gets no harder at any speed. It is still water. If you fire a pistol into water the bullets penetrate a couple of feet. Try that with concrete.
Of course water is not concrete, but this is just basic physics. A Boeing 777 ditching like this will be twice the weight and twice the speed of Flight 1549, giving 8 times the energy of impact, at least.
Then remember that Sully ditched on a flat calm river dissipating the energy considerably. MH370 must have ditched into ocean swell perhaps worse. Flight 1549 was not in one piece either. Both engines were ripped off instantly and the cabin was full of holes. There was debris.
In this case I would be very surprised if the wing and empennage did not break off. Furthermore, even if the main cabin is intact, it would sink quickly and the rupture due to water pressure. You say B777 is a tank but it is not a submarine. In reality it is just an aluminum and composite tube, filled with all kinds of floatable stuff. There will be a debris field, however hard it is to find.
No doubt debris will be found one day, but I grow ever more doubtful about the main wreckage.