This is the reason I had to stop playing EVE Online. I love the premise and universe of the game, but my goodness does it start to feel like a "job" quickly.
"....I have to work with a customer support rep to get it issued"
I'm finding more and more (or maybe it's always been this way?) that the onus for correcting or making sure something is correct, is ALWAYS placed on the last person in the chain.....the individual.
I don't have a background in webdesign so I cannot speak to the inefficiencies of how this is put together. I do, however, have a background in GIS/Geography and from that perspective I still maintain that this is a great way to present the timeline of events and information gathered. It's an especially great way to present the data for a layperson who
A) has a passing interest in geographic/oceanic/general data topics and
B) doesn't really care how efficient the UI is because they don't live in that world on a daily basis
That said, I also have the opinion that not all websites HAVE to be optimized for mobile viewing. There are instances, such as this one, where the data/information being communicated does not lend itself to mobile and therefore should not be compromised.
To your last point, I think I understand the direction you're coming from, but I have to disagree with the final argument you make. Just because a lot of people died in a tragic accident doesn't mean that we cannot celebrate and utilize information that is a direct result of that tragedy.
The designers of the linked site are not celebrating the deaths of these people, they're sharing and marveling in the data that was produced as an unexpected secondary and tertiary result of those deaths. One does not preclude the other and, I would argue, it would be a disservice those who died to NOT share and learn from the data produced.
I'm going to have to disagree with many of the other comments and say that this is a very well designed website. In my opinion, it's the optimal way to present this data in an interactive format short of a presentation from someone in the same room. Large amounts of geographic data that covers as large an area as the search for MH370 did, is not easy to present.
Do you honestly think (and buy the stereotype) that people from Arkansas are a bunch of inbred, shoeless, hillbillies? If so, how do you explain the size and success of Wal Mart so far? Do you really think that Wal Mart is delivering products to over 10,000 of stores worldwide without an understanding of SQL?
Wal Mart is doing some pretty cool stuff with technology. Maybe not on the level of Amazon, which might end up biting them in the long run, but Wal Mart definitely knows their way around a database.