They still haven't found out what happened? Oh man... I can understand that occasionally something must go wrong with the planes, but with all today's gps and stuff, you would think that they'd at least be able to figure out soon what happened, where the plane fell...
That's what I'm saying. We can locate our phones, but yet can can't find a freaking plane...
According to several news sites, family members were still able to locate phones with FindMyiPhone and Android Device Manager. Whether this is the last known location of the device, I don't really remember how apple worked. From what I remember, if the device is off, then you won't be able to find it. Unless the airplane suddenly became a submarine.
Why wouldn't investigators be using that data?
Out in the wide open ocean there are large parts that are not covered by radar.
No phone towers and it is way too expensive and most of the time unnecessary to cover every single part of the ocean with satellites all the time.
So it is very likely that being able to call their phones is an unsubstantiated rumour. Without reception with some kind of cellphone tower you won't be able to track a phone. It just won't "ping".
If it crashed in the middle of the ocean, at 30 meters GPS and most emergency beacons won't work anymore or at least the signal won't be strong enough to be picked up above water.
Something like that has happened before and they knew exactly where to look. It still took them
it still took them 2 years and a big dose of luck to find it. They even found small pieces of debris back then, something that hasn't been found with Malaysia flight MH370.
So don't be too surprised.