I have one question: Are they also looking on land?
Because that’s where I think this plane is. Tucked away safely somewhere — for later use.
I think they are prepping for the next stage of the ruse. If under water, the black box batteries are players until they die. If it was on land, the assumption is that the black box should have allowed it to be found by now. No telling what all got tampered with, but I imagine the black box is not impervious to tampering with.