I wouldn't take anything you are reading about lightning strikes right now as the cause. We may never find out if they can't recover anything from the plane.
The automatic message that all the media are talking about is a very normal occurence, those messages are sent so that maintenance is ready to go to work when the plane arrives at its destination. That notice could very well have been nothing more than a popped circuit breaker. Anybody coming up with causes right now is just flapping their gums for a soundbite.
On an aviation forum there is a picture of the Atlantic satellite image from yesterday around the time this was all happening. There were lots of very big thunderstorm cells in the path this plane would have crossed.
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