I think, in my humble opinion, that whether the plane could have floated any distance from the reef depends entirely on how it went off of the reef (presuming that it was there in the first place). If it was picked up by a surge of the surf and carried off in one piece, sure it could have floated for some time with empty tanks. If it was slowly pulled over the edge, catching on things as it did so, I would think that it probably got beat up to the point that it didn't have a whole lot of buoyancy left in it and probably sank fairly quickly. Keep in mind, those tanks were built to old the pressure of the fuel that they contained which pushed from the inside. Submerge them a bit and I'm not sure they would do real well before imploding. From some of the presumed radio messages, I infer that the plane was slowly drawn to the reef edge and then over the side, not so much floated away. I agree with Harry's thought, if I couldn't move the plane to higher ground, like the beach, I would certainly do all I could to at least keep it from moving toward deeper water. I've seen photos of fire gutted ships and have to wonder if there would have been enough line left on Norwich City to string together enough length to secure the plane. I guess the NC crew may have taken line with them when they abandoned ship, but, as that wasn't the smoothest of operations, doubt they did so, unless they either threw it overboard or retrieved it from the surf after they made it ashore. How long of a line would it take to reach from where it is believed the plane landed to something solid, like a tree? From the pictures it looks like a fair distance. Oh to have a time machine. LTM- John