if the jet were fitted with internet suite, to be honest, thats one thing that even I would not have thought to disable never mind a hijacker. If there was any sign of kerfuffle, there would have been messages all over the place, a bit similar to the phone calls made on 9/11 by passengers on the final AA jet that went in.
As to the search area, one of two options. Its either close in to the point at which contact was lost (bomb) or its on the perimeter of a big circle determined by fuel remaining and global winds, IF, and only if, its suspected the jet flew on for whatever reason. We dont have a search area the radius of the max flight range, we realistically have those 2 options. As SAR have two potential directions, again, I suspect any wreckage left post crash floating will be found once some lateral thought has been applied to the problem. Together with satellite , if there is wreckage, they will find it soon enough.
Last edited by VinRouge; 13th Mar 2014 at 18:36.