Technically Southwest never declared bankruptcy following 9-11, but it takes them 12 hours to change a tire on a Boeing 737 parked 15 minutes from the factory...no one is perfect.
Brucat, if the numbers I read back in the Air France crash period were accurate, ~80% of water landings by airliners had at least a few survivors: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_landing. I have a family member that has survived a water ditching. As PIC of a single-engine, 1970's tech piston powered aircraft that often flies over water, I think about this a lot. All the gear won't save you if you can't get out of the airplane through door or window!
It truly is sad that we don't know where this bird is, after 11 days and several countries satellites involved. Would an EPIRB not be picked up via satellite in that part of the world? They have coverage in the Southern Ocean and Indian Ocean. Further, China doesn't build the cameras in our spy satellites or many of the components, MAYBE a few of the integrated circuit chips. They may have caught up but the tech involved in making the camera mirrors and lenses is some pretty high-end stuff...I'm sure they bought the Russians designs but I've only started to see the Chinese offering the manufacturing technology that could remotely build these in the past decade or so.
Finally I agree with most of Timbos hypothesis, especially the electrical fire-military aircraft have the FCC's in different parts of the plane for this very reason. If that's not it, +1 to the Aliens.
