Two big questions!
1. Why, if ACARS was transmitting (AC power still available), there was no radio transmission on Guard?
It is a well established fact that there was at least 1 a/c (LH) within VHF range... The Germans (as opposed to pilots from some other nationalities) would definitely listen on Guard, especially in a remote area. In any emergency the PF (he takes over comms as per Airbus procedures) should make the "Mayday" call asap or if directed by ECAM (red LAND ASAP).
2. My company has some reasonably new Airbuses and even though they are not equipped with the manual ELT activation switch, I am 99% sure the AF a/c had this installed... Why didn't anybody manually activate the ELT? Monitoring stations around the World need only a few seconds of transmission to triangulate the position, and also the ELT might have (depending on model installed) transmitted it automatically... Can anybody enlighten us on the AF procedures regarding manual ELT activation from the cockpit? Please?