Quote:
Originally Posted by ossiblue
I'm certainly no expert, but given the circumstances of this particular incident, I don't find it especially mysterious that no debris has been found yet, and I'm convinced some debris will eventually be identified, probably from some random discovery by an unofficial search entity.
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I have participated in in a number of search and rescue operations, all with a fairly narrow circular area of probability. Even then spotting a human in a raft in any sea state above 1 is difficult...small debris, the detritus of a plane wreck after three or four days?
I also did the test of the Downed Aviator Locator System (DALS) in the late '80's. The system basically used the PRC-90 radio we all carry in our survival vests as a beacon and allowed an aircraft equipped with DALS to "hone" in on the signal and fly on top. DALS was developed because of the fact that airborne search assets routinely flew right over survivors in the water and failed to spot them.
I flew hundreds of simulated rescues using DALS equipment.
We started with just having the guy sit in a large boat and emit...worked great.
We then put guys in survival rafts in the Chesapeake, MUCH harder to spot, even knowing where to look.
We then put the guy in the water with just his floatation gear...on certain heading, sun angles, etc., even knowing where to look, it was difficult, very difficult to spot the person.
That and very little in a jet liner that is visual floats for long...combined with an open ocean search without a define CEP and there is no mystery in the lack of debris, at least to me. Something will come ashore.