This would suggest something the aircraft was in trouble then out of control. 5kms length wise spread of pieces found over a day later would easy be done by currents, and the fact it's in length wise, not area would help add to this. From an separation at 35,000 feet you would expect a much larger area with larger pieces in different areas that had air resistance on them.
Excellent point, Phalanger, I've been thinking along the same lines. It's 'promising' (if you can use such a word in the current context) in that they'll be able to fix the likely point of impact with a little more accuracy than the earlier reports suggested; which in turn gives them a ghost of a chance of recovering the FDR/CVR. Not good odds on that though, it will probably only make the difference of the radius of search being in tens of miles rather than hundreds.
As for the lack of radio contact, if all the systems were going dead around you at once in the middle of the Atlantic, I would be a lot more worried about the aircraft and lives then sending out a dooms day message for arm chair experts.
I have to second that -whatever happened, the available evidence suggests that it happened very quickly. On a related note, suggestions that some sort of worldwide tracking system should be set up to cover all the world's oceans, this would cost literally billions to set up and run (whether it was satellite-based or ship-based); and, again on what little evidence is available, knowing where the aeroplane was would have contributed nothing to prevent the accident, and (now that the wreckage has been located) very little to the task of searching for the FDR/CVR.
According to Steve Creedy in this morning's Australian, the make on AF is different to that used by QF. I believe he said this was from a 'reputable source', but did not name them/it.
Booomerang-Butt, I checked this out and it appears simply to be a difference in standard equipment between the two models (A332/A333) rather than any difference between airline preferences. And, as I'm sure you'll know, the idea that electronic interference may have contributed to the Qantas incident came up mainly because there is a big naval signalling station near Learmonth, where it occurred.