[Law is not justice but process]

The scale on that picture says the object is approximately 24 m long, or about 79 feet. The tail height is less than 65 feet, and it is clearly wider than a fuselage, so the only thing it could be is a large piece of wing. It raises two issues to me. First, if it is part of the missing 777, it is large enough to suggest the plane did not crash in an uncontrolled manner, but made a water landing - otherwise I would expect it to be in much smaller pieces. Am I off-base with that presumption? Why would a suicidal pilot fly all the way out into the Southern Ocean and then land it instead of just spiraling in? Second, what would a huge piece of wing be doing floating after 10 or 12 days? Presumably it is heavier than water. Are the fuel cells (by then full of nothing but air)so strong that they could stay intact and air-filled that long?

[hoosiermama]

Way back in the 100s there was a discussion of what part of he plane was made with “honeycomb”. Your answer may be there ( wing is one part)

There was also about 174 a copy of comment made thru air network from a person who had hardcooy in hand identifying it as a wing

Hope this helps!

[the OlLine Rebel]

I am no expert, but do not necessarily pick apart findings = conclusion as many are.

General rule: anything can happen. It all depends on exactly what happened how things can shape up.

I wouldn’t put it past the plane to include large pieces even with a direct hit. Plunge in perfectly and the fuselage may stay together, as the weak wings tear off. Then the fuselage may disintegrate just after impact.

As to floating on and on, again, it could happen. Airplanes are made to be as LIGHT as possible. Thin aluminum with honeycomb composites. The airspace in some of those honeycomb panels could be enough to allow floating.

I will say, though - how do they know these pix from Aus sat weren’t whales?

[bigdaddy45]

I think you’re correct. Lets assume everyone died on board and this thing was just flying on autopilot for thousands of miles. Eventually it runs out of gas, and basically comes down nose first. I can’t imagine any piece 50+ feet long would be left.

If it WAS an attempted water landing the obvious question is... why would anyone fly a plane thousands of miles over open ocean when they knew they couldn’t reach land? Nothing about this makes sense.