My niece is a commercial airline pilot. She is furious that the type of information being relayed to us (general public)is so sketchy.

First of all, she says there are very few people who would know how to disengage the transponder or any location detection equipment outside of course the pilot and co-pilot.
Secondly, this sudden dive and loss of altitude is strange and loss of contact at a specific point is strange. Where was the plane going?Down, or farther on? No debris? Unlikely that a plane that size with that many people could disappear without luggage, fragments of aircraft and oil slick. Recall KA007? Shot down and even though the initial hit as reported by the Russian pilot mentioned that the plane was in fact intact as it went down save for smoke from the rocket strike.