A careful read of the radio contacts section shows the last voice comms at 0153 was on HF radio with ATLANTICO. To include a SELCAL check. Normal procedure was to take (noisy) HF off of speaker/headset at that point. A voice only recall from ATLANTICO requesting TASIL update would not have been 'heard'. There has been no explanation as to why ATLANTICO did not use SELCAL again to get a response from AF447.
But all of this last comm was on HF, so any involvement with VHF was moot at that point.
Also, the 'usual' setup was that the F/O was doing all the comms, and the swapped 'control panel' was between station one (Capt) and station 3 (Overhead panel). Station 2 (F/O) was never involved with swap.
Hope this helps.
Thanks SingPilot.
I had missed that switch from VHF to HF.
So that closes the VHF MEL issue.
The controller debate will continue until hopefully procedures are improved. Clearly there was a breakdown(s) in the controller handover and all the checks and balances failed. Hard to beleive post 9-11 that a passanger transport can go AWOL for several hours and not raise a red flag with someone somewhere.