Originally Posted by
5star
Quite normal actually what they did. Often used to take an important matter off the frequency. Firstly, as to not congest the ATC frequency. Secondly, as to discuss this privately (and more conveniently) over the phone. We all know everything is live recorded by many parties.
Yes the sequence in and of itself isn’t unusual, but the specific context here is that getting through to the Itarrow before they depart should have been time critical, and done by the guy giving out the phone number ringing tower himself ASAP. The amount of time wasted giving AF a phone number seemingly prevented the message getting through pre-takeoff.