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Old 29th Sep 2009, 12:07
  #4487 (permalink)  
SaturnV
 
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mm43, thanks for your reply.

If they were in SELCAL watch mode, learning after the fact what they might have heard had they been listening on the HF really matters for naught at this point.

It does raise retrospectively whether switching to SELCAL watch was the prudent choice in the circumstance that AF447 found itself that night, when crossing the ITCZ in an area of SIGMETs and having received an ACARS message from dispatch at 0031 hours, saying "PHOTO SAT DE 0000Z : CONVECTION ZCIT SALPU/TASIL". The transcript of the brief communications between AF447 and ATLANTICO around 0133 hours reveals no concern about the enroute weather.
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As best as I can interpret the times and positions from the BEA report.

LH507 is at ORARO at 0140 and chooses then to deviate west by 10 NM because of what its radar is showing.

AF447 is at ORARO at 0200

IB6024 is at ORARO at 0212, encounters turbulence and cumulonimbus buildups, deviates east by 30NM when about 30(?) NM south of TASIL and then rejoins the airway in clear air close to TASIL

AF459 is at "the level" of ORARO at 0237, earlier (some time after 0200) this flight had deviated to the west by 20NM to avoid an area of radar echoes. During the deviation, the radar, while on max gain, reveals an extensive squall line ahead. AF459 then deviates east of the airway by 70-80 NM. and rejoins the airway north of TASIL at the ASEBA waypoint.
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