On Sunday, March 23, 2014 11:55:42 AM UTC-4, wrote:
On Sun, 23 Mar 2014 08:18:17 -0700 (PDT), trader_4

wrote:





Just a few years ago they did exactly that. They recovered the Air France

black boxes in a similarly deep ocean without benefit of the pings. It

took 2 years, but they did it.



They had a very good idea where the Air France jet was. We still do

not even have a real clue where 370 went down. They are chasing

satellite pictures of junk in the water a couple weeks after the plane

was lost and we are not even sure it is the right junk.


Yes, I agree they had a much better idea of the location in that
case. But what I was responding to was the assertion that if
they don't find the wreckage before the black box pingers stop,
they will never find it. If they figure out where it likely
is, they could still recover black boxes, wreckage, etc long
after the pingers stop, just like Air France. And the pingers
are of limited value in this case, as they aren't likely to
reveal the location, unless by some miracle they get really lucky.
I'm not even sure what assets they have listening for the pings.
Clearly most of the assets are visual, the search planes in particular.






I bet, if they ever find this plane, it will be by accident while

looking for something else decades from now.

... unless it does turn up wadded up against a mountain or the desert

in South Asia

I think there is still a reasonable probability that they will
find debris doing the search. But I agree it's also possible that
someone will just come across something floating or washed up on
a beach somewhere. Even that, if it happend months from now, would
be a major step. We'd at least know for sure which general area
it went down in and that it's not being outfitted with bombs in
Pakistan.