Presumption:
Beacon emissions are what are being hard. Beacon is still attached to FDR/CVR which is still attached to 9M-MRO.
Concerns:
1. Bottom contour of the local area. If it's particularly rough, filled with valleys and peaks, sound could be reflecting/echoing off of the sides of underwater bluffs or cliffs (and other terrain features) adjacent to site of wreckage. That would have an impact on signal quality, but I am pretty sure the current equipment can account for that. From previous posts, the estimate that bottom is "silty" argues against bottom bounce sound path being available.
2. Chronus provided some interesting links to ocean surveys a few decades old. Are more recent surveys available, or would those be "proprietary" information belonging to a minerals development firm?
3. Recovery effort: what, beyond the CVR/DFDR, would be necessary to recover? As deep as that area looks to be, raising the whole thing seems unnecessary. The salvage/search effort of AF447, and its limitations, informs this question.
4. Related to 3, political/cultural issues in re body recovery? How serious, how expensive? But, as some have discussed earlier from the pathology point of view, would not examining some of the dead provide a clue regarding how all of the people on board died?
Unrelated point: Driver, if your hypothesis is that somebody shot it down, the info released to the public argues against that. If you insist on pursuing a conspiracy theory ... consider how much trouble the Malaysian government have had in dealing with the press. I don't think they have the wherewithal to cover up such a thing.
Last edited by Lonewolf_50; 10th Apr 2014 at 14:13.