Regrettably 'singpilot' is probably right ...
What we should learn from this, apart from the bleedin' obvious, is that the ACARS weather reporting system needs to become a little more proactive. The absence of messages told us something was amiss, but we didn't wake up to the fact for 6 hours!
Not good enough in this day and age ... it wouldn't have mattered to AF, but what if 100+ had survived a ditching?
It doesn't need more ATC, the infrastructure is there already.