takata
What happens then? with an unreliable airspeed, altitude, direct law, etc. The pilots will be busy for quite some time in order to sort things out. ...
I wasn't arguing against power failure, but against the notion that it would offer an even simpler Occams Razor. To make my point I was fishing for the 'What happens then?"
The other point which make me think this kind of scenario a serious possibility (flameout) is that I'm pretty sure they turned back: if not, it is just not possible to reconciliate the actual drift of the wreckage with any fast upset at altitude.
I would like to re-offer another theory on crash point, debris drift, and course deviation.
To cut to the chase, they came down west of course but near the zone of eastward current flows. Then they drifted eastward/east-north-eastward before then currents took debris more north-north-eastward. Somewhere in the interface between the eastward zone and what's north of it is a region of very slow moving current. Just to put that card on the table as a potentially valid thing.