If this aircraft had disintegrated at altitude, it would seem the debris trail would be long and broad. The fact that nothing can be found has me scratching my head.
Lack of debris is puzzling.
Mght it be that the debris is mixed in with massive quantities of trash reportedly floating in those waters?
When I first read the report that they’d found 2 oil slicks, and no debris fields, I thought perhaps the terrorists had the pilots descend, dump fuel, fly low to avoid radar and land at a strip in either VN or TL. Kidnap scenario. With the reported cabin door found report, it becomes less likely. An explosion and disintegration at 35,000ft, the debris field would be a huge area. Would satellites pick that up?
All of our perspective is off regarding our expectation for finding a "debris field". If the plane impacted the ocean "mostly intact", their would be significant debris in a location that could be seen in a search from the air at a relatively higher altitude (2K to 5K feet). In this case you would see hundreds of parts and pieces floating that would catch an observer's eye. Now imagine searching an area of ocean the size of Ohio for debris that may only be grouped together with a few pieces of debris here and there (spread out all over). The observers in the air have to fly lower to find it thus can cover less search area per pass. Otherwise, you have boats patrolling in pattern around the area (again over an huge area). They weren't even sure the oil slicks were from the plane or naturally occurring, which does happen more than you would think.
Here is what confuses me. Usually the "black boxes" send a signal ping or something that makes them easier to locate. I'm not sure how effective those are in deep water, however.