I just posted something this on another smaller related thread, but it may be worth repeating:
There were 20 employees of Freescale Semiconductor on board (
confirmed). I found
this article from June 2013 Avionics Intelligence to be interesting in that it provides an overview of how Freescale Seminconductor plays a role in development of hardware for aviation electronics, including technologies related to combat and autonomous aviation.
I'm not arguing that the employees had anything to do with the mystery, I'm just curious whether this connection has already been explored (I have my single opening for conspiracy theories plenty occupied at the moment with other things). There is probably nothing to see here given that Freescale Semiconductor apparently has applications in a broad set of markets ,and I know of no one contending that these employees had anything to do specifically with the avionics applications/market.