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I’ve heard that cell phones contain global positioning system transponders inside. If that’s true, then would it be possible to triangulate the location of the passengers phones? Is that at all possible???

Yes. If these phones were still active after the “crash” and near any towers, they would be pinging the towers. Every single ping is archived with data identifying the phone. There is even a youtube video from a guy that subpoena’d the phone records for his phone and used the raw tower data to create an animated map showing where his phone (and he) was during part of that time period.

I used to work with law enforcement relations for one of the big phone companies that associates itself with a color I hate. If your cell phone is on and there are any towers nearby, there is a record being kept of your position. If there are lots of towers, it can be pinpointed almost as accurately as with gps. I’ve seen it done (with my phone, while I watched it being done).

Indeed. Google AT&T “LIS Hybrid” for location information services hybrid. The other carriers have similar offerings.

Just using cell phone tower triangulation, ANY of the carriers’ software can regionally locate you.

From there it drops down to well under 50’ ... once you get into the good stuff.

Small point: the towers ping the connected phones as much as the phones ping the towers/network. Every phone that’s on periodically has a digital ACK/NACK of sorts with the towers.