I'm pretty sure several of the VOR boats have been damaged in recent years from hitting submerged objects down there, and at least one of them was an unknown object. At the speeds they travel, and especially at night or in a storm with no visibility; they have almost no chance to avoid the stuff. There is most definitely a factor of luck in that race.
Mike
Not sure a VOR boat has had an issue in that particular part of the ocean. That is getting down there. The only vessels continuously operating in that region are of the military kind we aren't supposed to know about. Otherwise it's round the world racing boats, which is why CNN is playing that footage, it's probably the only HD footage from that area! So, not too many lost container unless the were carried there by ocean currents!
I do recall BP5 having an issue pretty far south, but a lot closer to land than where this flight went down. Some of the other round the world tris and cats have hit UFO's at speed deep in the southern ocean. As I recall they had a radar detection system for growlers installed on Orange II in the bows of each hull to mitigate this problem, because you're right Mike you can't see at those speeds, pitch black night, while getting drenched with ice cold water...
Anyway, I suspect they might have found debris from the accident in the satellite and surveillance footage that we haven't seen (and never will). Airplane parts are light and some tend to float. I also trust the Inmarsat guys. They are a sharp bunch of dudes and my hates off to them for crunching the numbers to get some actionable data out to the search team.
