I appreciate that radar only works above a certain altitude, but can someone explain to me why a vehicle worth > $200m doesn't have a GPS unit broadcasting over longwave radio,satellite connection or some other remote communication means. I feel like I'm missing something fundamental.
All modern aircraft are equipped with Mode-S transponders [1] which broadcast several parameters such as altitude, lat/longitude and aicraft ID info. There are also specific messages that signal "emergency status"[2].
You can 'listen' to these messages yourself with very basic radio equipment tuned to 1090 MHz[3].
Even though these signals can reach long distances (I remember getting ~300 Km with my home made antenna) it's possible that the plane was going through an area where no base stations exist.
Sure. I find that I easily lose track of planes if they are below a certain altitude. Still, it is very strange that the last recorded altitude is 35000 ft [1].
What looked odd to me at first was not the deviation but the fact that it seemed almost mechanical. As I looked at other flight paths vs actual flights however it became clear that this sort of deviation was relatively common.
All those kind of systems can fail or give inconclusive data. What you need to know is the crash site, not the last GPS trace. It would be better to include substances in aircraft that would be released in the event of breakup and be easily visible to remote sensing and radar satellites.
