Originally Posted by
Pace
One track
I appreciate what you are saying above with one caveat!! For any search to be carried out at such considerable depth the searchers have to be pretty confident that the wreckage is in the confines of quite a small area.
Even with that certainty it will be like finding a needle in a haystack.
There is still no evidence that this relatively small area holds the wreckage.
If this is a clutching at straws location which looks more and more likely then the game is over.
Frankly a politician saying we need to regroup, reconsider or whatever is a pre warning that they have run out of reasonable options and a withdrawal is likely
No, it is not nearly as bad as that.
A definite ULB signal was received. This means the search area can be narrowed very considerably within the radius of ULB audibility. No, it's not the size of Texas, more like a few hundred km2 at most. The Bluefin is supposed to be able to scan 40km2/day so if it Bluefin can't find it within a few weeks, then this probably means that it is beyond the capabilities of the AUV. A rethink of how to scan the search area, and maybe using bigger and better hardware is appropriate.
The only fear I have is that something else was mistaken for the ULB signal. This seems very unlikely, but given that it has stopped, it still a worry.