As I sit here with my tinhat on it wouldn't be hard to detach the black box after it landed, activate it and then set it adrift. Who knows?
I am convinced the pings were authentic, and I am convinced the islanders are telling the truth. It is a stretch to assume it landed in the Maldive archipelago and someone flew the black box back to where the search is going on and dropped it into the water. Truly, this is baffling. I believed the villagers from the get go, but those pings are pretty convincing.