Originally Posted by mm43
I think you meant to say,
" ... because the ACARS reports were transmitted at 1min intervals and 40nm represents the distance that the a/c could cover in 5min at cruise speed."
I think you are being charitable. I wrote what I recalled but evidently that is incorrect.
Reviewing post 1178 by GreatBear (
http://www.pprune.org/5715414-post1178.html), assuming that analysis is largely correct, I see that the ACARS position reports come every 10 minutes, and the reason for the 40nm circle is that ACARS fault messages started soon after the 0210 LKP report, and ended 4-5min later, when they would have continued had the a/c not ended flight. Is that about right, or am I still missing something important?