How do we lose an airplane

[proudretiredvet]

29. This is an interesting question.

When they lost the french plane in the sough pacific they pretty much knew where it was and found wreckage within a short time and that was in very bad weather. That plane was found on the ocean floor and the water there was much deeper than in this incident.
The water in the area that this plane went off of radar is about 600' deep. We can get down that far with many different platforms. So if it is there we will find the plane.
If it had crashed in one piece into the water it would have come apart leaving a more compact area of floating wreckage and oil slick.
If it had blown up or disintegrated in mid air the wreckage field would be large. In either case there would be a visible field of wreckage that should have been found.
That leaves room for speculation.
It hit the water in a more controlled manner and did not break up. This would mean that there was time for "mayday" alerts. There were none.
It had flight handling problems and veered sharply away form its course and continued to fly out of the area and then destructed in an area they are not searching. This too would have given the crew more than enough time to sound the alarm.
The pilot caused some deviation of course and then put the plane into a vertical dive leaving a very small field of wreckage in an area that they are not looking.
OR. It was taken and not lost. Maybe taken because someone needs a 777 for another venture. Who knows. I don't.
All of this is pure speculation. Nothing in this makes since right now.