[ThunderSleeps]

Space based radar that tracks all flights... A staring or scanning IR satellite with high enough resolution and real-time capability to track aircraft in flight... A sonar net sensitive enough to pinpoint a crash site... A HUMINT source inside another intel agency in a Country in the area that knows something... Signals intelligence that tracked the flight via unpublished means - even though pilots/operators/maintainers think there's only X, Y, and Z systems on commercial aircraft, perhaps there's one more black box very few people know about. Something to prevent another surprise 9/11...

There are lots of possibilities - heck that's just what I came up with off the top of my head before coffee. ;-) Obviously none are very likely, bordering on sci-fi, techno-thriller, mystery novel stuff.

[cymbeline]

“There are lots of possibilities”

Wow! Very interesting. I don’t see a problem with revealing the crash site. The revealer could pretend they just got lucky when actually they had a secret means of knowing the crash site.

[ifinnegan]

“Space based radar that tracks all flights... A staring or scanning IR satellite with high enough resolution and real-time capability to track aircraft in flight...”

I’d guess we have this - the ability to track every flight.

The article actually indicates it, mentioning satellite data.