Originally Posted by
Lord Farringdon
If you look at the Flightaware plots for previous days, there is consistency in the data. Noteably, there is ADS-B coverage for the entire sector...for previous flights. So ADS-B coverage is complete and the flight hasn't gone into a ADS-B 'blindspot' and then failed to come out again.
An ADS-B "blindspot" in this context simply means that there isn't an enthusiast with a receiver within range of the flight, capturing data for Flightaware.
Likewise, the fact that previous days' plots are shown as continuous doesn't mean continuous data capture, all the enthusiast ADS-B networks use interpolation/extrapolation to some extent.
To put it another way, the precise point at which today's flight suffered a catastrophe can't be inferred with any certainty from what has been published by the flight tracking networks.