Search similarities
Have been looking into an incident that took place 25 years ago over the Pacific (UA811), which involved search and eventual recovery of a relatively small piece of debris in similar depths, although the topography appeared to be a little easier.
Like many others I have found it difficult to comprehend, with all the resources being used and what we have been told was a much more focused search owing to the information from the ULB pings, that still nothing of importance has been identified.
UA811 lost its cargo door with a little of the fuselage, and about half a dozen seats. These relatively small pieces were found, and in the case of the door, recovered from approx 14000 feet.
The difference was that the search team had "a nominal radar accuracy of 1 nautical mile in range and 1 degree in bearing, resulting in a 90% probability search area for the debris of 5.5 nautical square miles".
It still took them the best part of 1 month to find the debris, even with the luxury of solid information so I do now understand the complexity of the search in this case.
What I do not believe for 1 minute unlike many of you (drivers as well?) is that this aircraft 'ditched'. If indeed it did come down in the general area, isn't it far more likely that it was destroyed completely on surface impact, as in SR111?