An interesting thread for sure. Of note is the lack of criticism of ATC here. Like all others I probably miss the odd call, as I would imagine most other airline pilots do, from time to time. Tired...very busy frequency, very poor ATC English mixed with...French, Spanish, Dutch, Italian, Greek, Russian, Chinese, Korean, Portugese,...on and on, etc, etc.....all contribute.
But I would bet I do not miss as many calls as the number of times ATC fails to inform me of a frequency change when at or approaching an FIR boundary. It is a frequent occurence, worldwide.
Yes my awarness should overcome the problem, and I have charts to refer to, where the next frequency can be obtained, or 121.5 if neccesary, when it isnt picked up. But lets get real here, Korean is not the first airline that this has happened to, nor will it be the last. I listened to various people trying to raise a Nigel on 121.5 not so long ago, for quite a long period of time, after an oceanic crossing. The KAL incident should never of happened, it is poor, to say the least, and there is nothing to be gained by defending them, but........
I think its time to get real, stopping bagging KAL,and the many others who arent perfect, and look to ways to address the problem of some bloody pitiful ATC around the world, both first and third, which contributes massively to this kind of incident.