Concerning the Flight Egyptair 804 crash, given that the Black Box and other recorder has not been recovered and yet there are reports that fire alarms/sensors were going off in the cockpit and the lavatory/bathroom area as well as "a cockpit window being breached indicating it may have been blown out" I wonder just how do they know that? Represenative Michael McCaul of Texas, who is on the Homeland Security Committee, was the one who made those statements without revealing how they/we know. Whether it's terrorism or some other event, and they are saying they won't know for sure until the boxes are found, they certainly know something by some means now.
Maybe I've missed some news and could be a simple explanation for how they knew, maybe a radio transmission or some other explanation but I've not heard how they know or knew as of yet. Maybe someone else can comment who has heard.
Here you have an aircraft some 40,000 or so feet in the air going along at speed and something sudden happens but yet officials know that smoke alarms was going off in parts of the plane? There are rumors about what satellites can tell our Government and about the Military being able to target and listen to various conversations actually in parts of the world.
Frankly I have no idea if we have the ability to actually hear sounds or listen into an airliner in flight or places on the ground in various parts of the world but while that's amazing and comforting it's also frightening to think a government might have that power. All of it depends on just how such power, if it exist, is used and just who is using it.