Can I just confirm that the ONLY supporting evidence leading posters to discuss a VS mid air break up is the fact the French Navy found it in the water?
VS found intact with rudder attached. Speculation is that it was found that way because it contacted the water without the airplane. Inconclusive if VS being found alone is what caused the breakup, or is an artifact of the breakup.
Other evidence supporting in-flight break-up is the condition of the bodies, and the dispersion distance, which is similar to the China 911 flight and the Japan 707 breakup in 1966 at Mount Fuji.
These events can also be explained by a controlled, upright, low energy ditching, with crosscurrents and winds accounting for dispersion.
Consider the odds of a low energy ditching at night in a thunderstorm, with high seas, with compromised systems.