Re: @p_0
I think a few people here are posting without pilot's licenses. I've taken tests in a couple countries, and the same thing is the case. You learn to communicate without radios. Even ATC has a means to communicate without radios.
If went for a straight in approach to an airport without radios, you'd be assumed to be a maverick as well as a liability, but an ATC would clear the area for the nutter coming in, and prep the emergency department. They would try to communicate with you using light guns (not as fun as they sound). You can acknowledge these with a waggle of the wings.
Let's assume that this 'flotsam' is not the plane for a moment (last I checked it's not verified), but assume the comms/controls were stopped by a glitch.
SO, as the plane changed direction and flew for a while it was flyable, and at least under *stable* flight. that means it wasn't entirely damaged. If the systems were causing problems, a clever pilot might even assume that Rolls Royce (or others) were monitoring things, and use Morse code in the engine speeds to send a signal assuming it were impossible to alter the controls. It would probably log something in the black box as well.
Tedious, but doable, especially if you suspect the connections to the black box are severed. Doing that when over a country would make for some odd changes in altitude to say *something* was odd. We're not hearing much anything about this though.
The problem with this is that the information given out is piecemeal and handled badly. Other than that, I hope and pray some other explanation other than a crash is found. For the families of those on the plane at least. The rest of the misinformation peddlers can then wonder what to do in penitence (I hope).