The next stage will open the search to private contractors, and Metron hopes to be in the running. It could be on the job within a few months, Keller said, but apart from concern for the families of the missing passengers and crew, there’s no rush. The wreckage isn’t going anywhere.
But there’s not much information to go on.
The underwater locator beacons on the plane’s two black boxes—the flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder—are designed to “ping” for only 30 days, so they’re long dead.
No one found any debris from the plane, and even if they did now, it would be next to useless. “Reverse drift,” figuring out where objects first hit the water based on timing, currents, and winds, is tricky even after a few days. After nearly three months, any debris would be “relatively useless” for finding the crash site, Keller said. Theoretically, debris could point to the plane’s position as it hit the ocean, which could help determine its final path. That’s a long shot.
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