Originally Posted by bbg
The only thing that could cut off all communications and all electrical power, followed by silence could only be some form of catastrophic structural failure.
Only that? The only thing? Your certainty lacks supporting evidence at this point in time.
That aircraft had damage history, a collision with a 747 while taxiing.
Repaired.
It
could have placed un accountable stress on the starboard
wing root fittings, that decided to give up while in cruise. due to some CAT how ever light or severe as the case may be.
If the airframe went into a structural failure dive towards terra firma or water the crew would be a little more than a tad busy during the horrific descent, and would not have been able to send a radio message or mayday.
You go from the "only thing" to some probables ... if ... could have.
Verdict: There is not enough info, nor sufficient weight to your analysis, to support your confidence in that being
the only thing that could lead to this flight going missing, or crashing.
Why do I say this? While a 777 is not an A330, a crew without any structural failure managed to hit the ocean in AF 447.
The Adam Air flight previously referred to seems to have hit the ocean without a structural failure initiating the problem, though the after action report indicates that they flew it into structural failure.
In the case of this crew and this flight, what is unknown far exceeds what is known.