Weather can make the problem even worse.
A crash occurring during heavy storms may leave investigators with incomplete radar information, unreliable witness reports and difficult search conditions.
If an aircraft disappears in an isolated region, search teams may spend days, weeks or months trying to determine where it went.
And if the search area is hundreds of square kilometers—or much larger—the challenge becomes enormous.
## The Passage of Time Changes Everything
The first days after an aircraft disappears are critical.
Search teams rely on radar records, radio communications, weather information, fuel calculations, satellite data and eyewitness reports to establish the aircraft’s likely route.
As time passes, however, evidence becomes more difficult to find.
Wreckage can be moved by rivers or ocean currents.
Snow can bury debris.
Vegetation can grow over the remains.
Landslides can cover crash sites.
Human structures can deteriorate.
Even the landscape itself can change.
A location that looked completely different in satellite imagery decades ago may be almost unrecognizable today.
