I remember the shock and fury that people had when there was a real concern that this had all been deliberate. I recall there were moves to require all commercial airlines to have satellite transponders of some sort that could not be turned off by the flight deck.
I don't think there has been much progress announced on this subject, likely to a lot of controversy about privacy and such.
Still, had there been a satellite transponder on the last 5 or so hours of this flight, there is a much better chance that there could have been recovery of some monitoring equipment. These recent articles note that there have been no personal effects, baggage, seats or such that have appeared on distant beaches, unlike the hard shell items that appear to originate from a Boeing 747, which is consistent with the plane. Many of these items would float easily and would be expected to show up more easily than wing fragments. The steadlth in actually planning the type of water crash/entrance to preserve the fuselage and it's passengers with identifiable personal effects, by dropping the landing gear to take the crash force is very cynical and calculated.
The site of the final crash was also very deliberate, and in an area that is very deep and prone to underwater earthquakes and landslides, so that eventually the plane would be completely covered and undetectable.
