CONF iture;
. . . as the ACARS messages might suggest, the AF447 crew has probably tried to get the help of that bird to stabilize the situation ... but the bird was just INOP !
. . .
To think that the bird was selected at FL350 makes me believe that the crew was looking for some kind of certitude. The FPV red flag was probably not what they were expecting ...
It would be unusual but I didn't get the sense from the ACARS messages that the crew was actually using the 'bird'. I believe the ACARS receives/records failure messages for transmission independently of crew selection of such system. Such messages are based upon system capability and availability and wouldnt' wait until the crew had selected the system before recording/sending such a message.