On board a plane there are cockpit voice and flight data recorders – the ‘black boxes’ – which each include a ‘pinger’ that sends a transmission up to 30 days after submersion underwater.
In the black box is an ASD-B flight transponder which, unlike the GPS in a car, broadcasts its location by sending information back to air traffic controllers every second.
Crews are also able to speak to their airline through discrete radio channels.
The missing aircraft was comfortably at a stage of flight when the pilot would have had plenty of time to report any mechanical problems to Air Traffic Control.
Black boxes on commercial aircraft also contain cockpit voice recorders which could provide some insight into what went wrong on that plane at 1am on Friday morning.
It remains a mystery why no one can make contact with the box.
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