[civilitty]

> it just makes it look like the Coast Guard spent 3 days and considerable money pretending to look for a target it knew was probably destroyed.

This counts as a maritime accident so the NTSB will likely be investigating. They'd want the Coast Guard to locate and try to recover any pieces it could for the investigation anyway.

Besides, the vast majority of that money is already spent. The variable cost is actually quite low - largely just overtime and fuel cost. Often the fuel comes out of reserves that have to be rotated out anyway.

[jochem9]

I assume these people could've been doing something more useful than recovering debris, so there's also the value of lost opportunities to be taken into account.

[kristjansson]

Eh…

The US military, Coast Guard included, is an exercise in readiness. Responding to something happening is probably as good an exercise as any.