mm43;
Your explanation of the hierarchy, supported by the highlighting you added to the list, helps considerably my understanding of the sequencing of the messages. It made me think again if the gaps in the sequence, considered against the hierarchy, can tell us more about a possible loss of communication. BEA's 1st interim report explains on page 47:
There are two possible reasons for the longer gaps: either the aircraft did not have any messages to transmit, or it no longer had the means for doing so (loss of satellite communication performance, for example).
Take the 35s gap between 2:12:16 and 2:12:51. After this gap, at 2:13:08 and 2:13:14 there are two FLR messages timestamped 2:11. These must have occurred before the 2:12:51 0212 WRN message that takes priority after the gap. Doesn't that mean that there were messages to transmit prior to the interruption of the sequence?
HN39