Thoughts on the search for the missing airliner.

Well, to my great surprise, the searchers for the missing Malaysia Air aircraft have heard the sonar beacons from the flight data and voice recorders. This is not just a needle in a haystack problem, it was a needle someplace in a heavily forested and mountainous county problem. Based on extremely little data, and a whole lotta guesses, they narrowed the probable crash area to a zone about the size of Australia, and searched hard for it. They also had a great deal of good luck.

Now they gotta get as much sonar location data as they can out of the nearly exhausted batteries of the sonar beacons before they die. MEanwhile organize a search operation to get sensors down to the ocean bottom there and narrow down the fuzzy sonar location information to a precise spot where they can lower down an deep submergence ROV to find and retrieve the flight data and voice recorders. It may even be possible to retrieve some wreckage and bodies, but that is a much more difficult task.

Bravo to the searchers for beating the very long odds.