[bbosh]

Does the data include power information? At least you could get some sort of bound on the distance it is likely to have travelled.

[dingaling]

Good thinking; yes, fuel flow and power settings are included:

http://www.rolls-royce.com/about/technology/systems_tech/mon...

[jwise0]

That seems to indicate that the data are transmitted via ACARS. Is there another back-channel, if ACARS were unavailable for some reason?

[notthetup]

If they received the data that means the engines managed to communicate somehow. So that tells you the length of time the transmission unit was powered up. Also, using differential signal strength between successive communications one can generate an approximate trajectory (x km from satellite at y time) etc etc. This would surely narrow down the possible locations.