Look around in the various threads, this has been discussed and also in the past. The plane had barely enough range to make it back home with one refuelling stop on the way. NATO countries were closing airspace while it was in the air, even going back to Russia would have been a challenge having to fly back over the likes of Hungary - which by then could well have been closed too.
Source? Wasn't it a Transatlantic flight?
"And again, once that happened, the fact the Austrian government sent a search party says it all, no matter how hard you want to spin it"
This doesn't contradict nor invalidate my point at all.