All aspects of the flight prior to 0210Z show a functioning aircrew, doing a serious job of keeping ahead of the aircraft, proposing some strict R/T procedures...
Actually, I think that this statement needs examination. From 1:35 until 2:14 the only crew action of which we are aware is their third attempt to establish the ADS-C link with Dakar ATC at 2:01. No other comms at all. Having made two attempts at 1:33 & 1:35, the crew then apparantly waited another 25 minutes, until the last possible minute to meet ADS-C requirements, to make their third try. The BEA report says that the minimum ADS-C requirement is reporting 20 mins ahead of entry into Dakar FIR; 2:01 is just about 20 mins ahead of their estimated time at TASIL (actually I believe 2:20 was Atlantico ATC's projection, not the crew's estimate).
Can someone here who has experience/knowledge of ADS-C answer this: once an initial connection has been attempted, could the system automatically generate further attempts - especially at the 20 mins threshhold when it detects that the connection has not been made? Or can the crew program the system to make further attempts? The BEA report says that the first connection has to be made by the crew - but could the BEA mean that the initial
attempt at a connection has to be made by the crew?
I appreciate that there may well be a perfectly mundane explanation for the 25 minutes silence, but as this is the
only comm I believe it is worth asking the question.
My first post - have been reading this from day 1, but it is easy to miss things/forget what you have read, so apologies if this has already been answered - but I don't believe that it has.