You'll hear some discussions about interpretation of POB - some will tell you that it refers to the number of people excluding crew members. Souls appears universally to be understood as every body irrespective of their status or operating capacity. There is some interesting debate about whether a body that was already known to be dead on departure should be included in the total.....
Whilst it may seem unimportant, the number on board is requested so that if the worst comes to the worst the emergency services know when to stop looking for bodies.
The fact that Dublin ATC did not hassle the crew for an answer suggests that they recognised that the crew may have had other more important things going on = both crew and ATC were doing their respective jobs, very professionally, and with the best outcome.
Maybe melodramatic to your ears but I doubt that the crew thought much about it.
PS - agree with other posters - Google is a handy thing to use.
Last edited by Spitoon; 25th Jan 2009 at 21:25.