Flight 261 apparently spiraled nose down into the water from 17,000 at approximately 4:30PM Pacific time 31 Jan 2000. Boats have been circling the area for the past 26 hours plus. And yet it is still Search And Rescue and all the spokesperson’s are still “hoping for a miracle”.
Search and Recover won’t be instituted until 2 Feb 2000 in AM. I can see bending over backwards in providing hope to the involved families, but does anyone really believe that there could be any survivors in this tragic accident? If so, please explain.
Stranger things have happened. The vessels and equipment needed for recovery won’t be in place until tomorrow, anyway. The stuff on the ocean floor isn’t going anyplace. The stuff that’s floating will be collected as part of the rescue phase. If there are any survivors they will almost certainly be among the floating debris. It’s best to get the body parts out of the water as quickly as possible. This helps with identification and reduces the unpleasantness involved in them washing up on shore.
Coincidentally, a buddy and I intended to make a surf trip to Oxnard this weekend. I think we’ll change our destination to a break a little farther north.