I don't think there's any way a plane can stay intact (even the most modern designs) in even the most 'controlled' of water 'landings'. Let alone in the deep, open sea swells of the Indian Ocean.

I'd argue even an attempted water landing is going to end up obliterating the plane - especially an attempt in the large swells of the offshore Indian Ocean.

And yet even with Flight 961's 'controlled descent/glidepath' more that 70% of the passengers were killed on impact and massive amounts of debris were sheared off of the plane.

deliberate sabotage.

I've actually cited it several times in this thread. It stalled (albeit artificially) and did a level bellyflop into the ocean - completely obliterating the plane and its passengers. It supports my point.

447's pitot tubes clogged - so the pilots (mistakenly) kept lowering the throttle to the point of complete stall - they kept the aircraft virtually level the entire time until it literally belly flopped onto the ocean's surface and disintegrated. I'd imagine that's closer to a 'best case' open ocean water landing.

Definitely a good point. But, by means of comparison, the search team for Air France 447 pulled 640 pieces of debris, some huge, including dozens of bodies, out of the Atlantic for nearly a month after it crashed.

There's no guarantee of ocean conditions at any given time (especially in that area of the world) and one or both pilots would have to be suicidal (literally) to have planned for & attempted it. An ocean ditch with a 777 is never even close to a sure thing, even for the very most skilled of pilots.

And yet, 7 months later...

It won't come down like a rock.

How would this statement further devalue Malaysia Airlines? It's not like the plane and its passengers haven't already been missing for the past 7 months.

Why would it have impacted at high speed? Could have been flown until fuel exhausted, crash landed relatively gently in the middle of nowhere.

Who is to say that the lithium ion batteries on MH370 were properly loaded, secured and tied down? I can imagine at least a dozen scenarios of causal negligence that could lead to cargo being bangged around and punctured - just throw in some brief turbulence.

I'm 99.9% sure MH370 crashed somewhere in the Indian Ocean. But isn't it just a little bit strange that (and yes I understand just how big the area concerned is) not a single piece of anything has been recovered in 7 months (minus the hiatus) of trawling?

Nah, the current issues in the Levant arguably trace their causal roots to December 31, 2011 - when the US-Iraq Status of Forces agreement expired because the Obama administration failed to meaningfully pursue an extension.