the pings, there was an assumption that this could take months and it was taking months in an environment in which we were prepared to take months. so we ll just keep going. and one potential phase of a future search, shifting much of it to private contractors and in that search it took more than 75 days over the course of two years to find the wreckage and they even have debris to work off of. this is certainly a difficult situation for investigators. pamela brown, thank you so much. let s bring in our best panel of experts. miles o brien, an ocean search specialist and rob mccallum. rob, let me start with you. if nothing is found in these final underwater missions, what next? jake, that s a great question because there were a lot of hopes pinned on these pinger locations. the next logical state would be to rethink all of the information that we have at hand
and if we track this storm, it s expected to die out on wednesday and it s going to bring winds of about 35 miles per hour. it s going to be dying out well before it gets to the search area but like we mentioned, we could see swells and the waves will increase. as the remnants of this storm gets closer. you can see the wind field. we re not going to be talking about tropical storm force winds for the next couple of days. in the next 48 hours or so, we ll see an increase in rainfall right around the underwater search area. all of these areas could see an increase in cloud cover. that, of course, is going to hamper the search from the plains. the forecast is anywhere from 20 to 30 miles per hour. it s very good news, of course. this is something that could have really had an impact but we know it s not going to have as much of an impact as we
search area and still no sign of debris, it continues. planes and ships scanned more than 19,000 square miles today. the u.s. chief accident investigator says lessons are being learned in the search for the missing plane. water recoveries are notoriously difficult and very expensive and time consuming and so we continue to work on better recorder ta recorder technology and information coming technical briefing is being scheduled. we don t know at this point whether they are alive or dead. but you haven t given us any direct truth of where they actually are. we want our loved ones back. reporter: investigators warn this search could go on for a long time. at the outset, before we had
fallen, an organization that helps with the battle. you ve hit our lives so hard, terrorists with the loss of my husband and stuff and then last year and you re not going to scare us. so it s a fight? oh, absolutely. i just got off the phone with megan gavin kirk. she finished the boston marathon and she s in great spirits. congratulations, megan. coming up next, as tough as the search for flight 370 has been, it could get a lot tougher in the coming hours. a look at the new obstacle for the search coming up after the break. dear sun, you created light. you are loved. celebrated. but things have changed since you got into this business. at philips, we re creating led light that people can color. adjust. even make beautiful sunsets.
of doing a broad scale search. miles, if the bluefin-21 missions turn out to be a bust al together, can we expect investigators scale back other aspects of the search, do you think? yeah. i think, jake, just picking up on what rob said, there s a huge cost factor that comes into play here. remember, the aerial search which continues is based on this data, this location which is being searched right now. if it doesn t pan out, then all of the equations that have been put into the mix, if you will, to determine where debris might be by hindcasting the ocean currents, all of that is for not. they are flying over open ocean and it could be any piece of ocean. if you really don t have a place in which to direct your search for an aerial reconnaissance campaign, it makes little chance of doing it. that s hard to explain to the families, however. on the other happened, rob, you and i have talked at great