I feel terrible for family's of these people... In short, it seems like nobody really seems to know what is happening, and in a vacuum of information, incorrect information is quickly accepted as fact.

I still find it a little amazing that in the "surveillance" world we seem to live in today, when the governments of the world know who we email, our friends on Facebook, and who we talk to on the phone that we can still manage to lose something the size of a 777.

I remember a few years back, a famous golfer was in a private jet that apparently suffered depressurization. They actually tracked the plane across the united states, sending sever F-16's up to inspect it, finding the windows iced over and no life inside.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1999_South_Dakota_Learjet_crash

I am really wondering if this isn't the exact same situation. The only difference here is that the transponders stopped transmitting, which is strange. I wonder if their batteries are as impacted by extreme cold like any other battery? If that plane was flying @ 35,000 feet, the outside temperature would be -55C.

Hope the find it, they will eventually... at least it will bring closure to the families.