We do not do well with abstractions.

You've seen planes. They are large. You've been in them, with more strangers than you have friends.

You've seen oceans. They are large. You've been in them; they seem to go on forever.

Our concept of "large plane" is pretty far off, though. Each wing on a 777 is the size of a tennis court, more or less. You've met people who have those in their back yards.

our concept of "large ocean" is truly fucked. If you stand on the shoreline and stare out as far as you can see, how much ocean are you looking at? 1000 square miles? 100?

Fourteen square miles.

Also according to Wolfram Alpha, about 1/3rd the size of Disney World.

So let's say you could see that downed plane. Let's say you're standing on the beach with binoculars looking out. You're trying to find, essentially, a tennis court in a piece of Disney World. It's about 1/1000th of the area you can see.

...that's if the plane crashed in sight of you.

The world is a very big place, and we are very small on't. Even when hundreds of us pile into a can, we are still a flyspeck on the Epcot Center.