Well, where would they land it? You don’t operate a 777 from a dirt strip hacked out of the brush on some deserted island and the airplane hasn’t turned up anywhere else.
As for texting or calling a phone that is dead/turned off, sure you can send a message to it. The network simply holds onto it until the phone is operating again and then it forwards it. Same with a call but you won’t hear it ringing as it’ll simply go to the network account and store it.
Understand that, but the guy says it rang but no one picked up.
A 747 super cargo jet landed on a small airport recently.
A skilled and fearless pilot could land one on a beach, on a hacked out section of jungle, as far as ransom, who knows, maybe its just being kept hushed up.
Muslims are involved, anything can happen, if nothing else there is the in flight bomb or the suicide plunge.
Also a commercial aircraft puts out IFF signals. Identification Friend or Foe. I don’t know if foreign airliners have that. It’s used to eliminate confusion for military aircraft and identify the aircraft to air traffic controllers. If high jackers don’t know about this it may still be picked up by satellite. Can the black box be picked up by GPS or sonar?
Dunno. Could it be parked intact on the ocean bed ?