If an airline can't track it's aircraft via GPS/ACARS at all times I have to say I'm a little worried. The aircraft sends a constant signal of its location to ground stations (apart from Radar or CPDLC) right? It sends this data along with engine trend data and the like I'm sure? What about the ELT?
That being the case, if the aircraft has gone down, surely they can get a pretty idea of its location, even if it did deviate off track?
Just thinking out loud, very sad. Hope it's not another A330 internal systems issue like some people have suggested. With these types of over water accidents it's usually a long and protracted investigation that requires much time to establish exactly what happened. Let's hope the recorders are found intact. Although that would be unlikely.
CNN suggested an issue as the aircraft crossed the inter tropical convergence zone (ITZ). Aircraft cross this area everyday and I haven't heard of such severe turbulence to bring down an aircraft from it's cruising altitude. Other aircraft in the area would have surely been subjected to similar conditions if this was true.
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