How to lose an aircraft? I've just read this article about the disappearance of QZ8501 and was surprised by the following statement:


  Even with automated beacons (we can assume these weren’t used, weren’t
  on board or were intentionally disabled) and EPIRBs, losing an
  aircraft is actually not that difficult.


Now, is it?

I was under the impression that if Breitling can make a watch with a 406 MHz distress beacon, a €70 million aircraft must surely be equipped with an automated ELT that can start to transmit automatically and whose signal can be picked up by [LE/GE]OSAR.

As it seems, US-registered civil aircraft are not required to carry 406 MHz ELTs while aircraft registered in Australia must be equipped with ELTs that operate on both 406 and 121.5 MHz (see the same reference).

Can you shed some light upon what is the current state of ELT regulations, how ELTs fitted to commercial aircraft operate in case of distress (automatic/manual?), what are the relevant regulations for EU-registered aircraft, and how can one lose an aircraft when all these systems operate?

I don't buy that “losing an aircraft is actually not that difficult” if all available technology is used (even assuming little redundancy and an adequate price range).
It is certainly possible to build an aircraft using modern technology that is hard to lose. After all, aircraft have GPS receivers and passengers can watch YouTube in the cabin. All you have to do is integrate those two and send the exact GPS position to a ground station as frequently as you want.

However, the global aircraft fleet is not so capable. Some aircraft have satellite internet capability; some do not. For those that do, the internet connectivity is completely isolated from the aircraft navigation systems. (After all, you don't want any possibility that an aircraft in flight could be "hacked" by someone on the ground.)

Retrofitting an existing aircraft (which could be up to 40 years old or more) to add such capability would be a very expensive job. Retrofitting an entire fleet (with perhaps many different aircraft models) is astoundingly expensive. Existing aircraft navigation and communications systems are so good that losing an aircraft "almost never" happens (yes, it's happened at least twice this year), compared to the number of successful flights. The airlines probably consider upgrading their fleet to support this kind of continuous surveillance not worth the expense, when compared to the probability that one of their aircraft actually goes missing.