Could Canadian ships have reached Swissair Flight 111 sooner?

Could the nine Royal Canadian Navy ships have reached the Swissair Flight 111 crash site faster?

Probably not, and a faster arrival was unlikely to change survival after such a high-speed impact, although the search still had to proceed at maximum urgency.

The answer assumes the nine Royal Canadian Navy ships were already proceeding as quickly as they could to the crash site. It offers no reason to think a faster passage was available. An aircraft striking the Atlantic at high speed leaves very little prospect of survivors, unlike a controlled ditching. Search forces still hurry because they must pursue any surviving chance of rescue. The panel therefore expects recovery and confirmation of deaths to dominate the response, without treating that expectation as a reason to delay it.