Thanks NSEU, it helps explain the lack of signal, I guess I expected even with an in-flight breakup that *some* sort of signal would have been receieved. (Not saying this is the case with AF, just generally speaking)
There's so many theories/hypothesis going around at the moment, but I did question one pilot stating in a blog that turbulence on its own could cause an accident... I thought that while one factor may contribute more than another, that it takes two or more factors (the holes in the cheese if you will) to result in something such as we have seen here...? So that would mean while turbulence may contribute to difficulty or damage there would have to be something else (system failure, human factor/control issues or stress) for it to result in a crash. Correct?