The planes cost $270 million each (list price) and there’s just shy of 1200 Boeing 777-200’s in existence, so even assuming a discount and some depreciation, there’s many tens of billions of dollars tied up in Boeing 777’s. There’s merit in spending a significant sum (which might ultimately be 0.1% of the total value of all Boeing 777-200’s) to get to the bottom of the cause of the crash. If the chain of events was started due to a mechanical problem or electrical fire, there’s around a thousand planes that could be protected. I don’t think it’s a particularly bad use of money (versus £500 million spent by Tony Blair stockpiling ineffective flu antiviral medicine, bank bailouts, etc. etc.) provided there is a prospect of finding the sunken aircraft, which seems realistic at the moment.
