Originally Posted by
rickair7777
The stuff they are finding are small parts that float. Surface currents can take floaty stuff all over the world.
The big pieces are too heavy to get moved around on the bottom.
Harder to find on uneven bottom surfaces but not impossible... aluminum has different characteristics than rock. Also other than the Perth/Aarbian Gulf shipping lane, the search region is very lightly travelled so shouldn't be too much man-made debris out there. Especially since there would have been almost no shipping traffic anywhere in that area prior to the modern age and petroleum... supertankers don't sink nearly as often as the sailing ships of yore.
The real challenge is that, compared to most famous shipwrecks, the search area is exceptionally large. Either need to narrow it down a bit or use autnonomous search vehicles which don't require an expensive surface support ship. Yes the USN has such things, for different applications... turn 'em loose and let them do their thing for months on end. They'll report back periodically.
yeah, but how many big pieces and just how big? Was it crashed nicely, or vertical at 420 knots? Once on the bottom the heavy pieces won’t move, but they sure got moved around on the long trip to the bottom. I do hope a large price is one day found.
you are right. Autonomous search vehicles are the only way. Remember, whoever did this went to great lengths to make sure there was no way to pinpoint where it crashed. From where the pieces washed up all we know for sure is it was the Indian Ocean.