Well, it was AF447, not AF441.
And they were pretty sure what had happened right away.
It seems as though few on this forum are aware of ACARS, and it's capabilities.
Well, they knew it had disappeared, but the location was less than clear and it took them a long time to find any evidence of it.
Everybody knew that the flight had disappeared, as in the current case, but it might have been nice to have had a more immediate real-time communications and recording system. The technology seems to be behind the times.
As an aircraft dispatcher, I had an ACARS window open at all times on my work desktop. Same principle as sending and receiving texts. I would use it to advise the crew of changing weather, new numbers in the event of a configuration or operational change( losing an AC pack requiring max altitude of 250, meaning new fuel numbers), or junioring a crew(they hate that). There are other versions that connect with maintenance control, providing data..