SLF3b,
Was on a (British) plane that diverted with the cabin full of smoke and made an over weight landing. There was only one quite terse announcement from the cockpit - I got the impression they were quite busy, and that talking to me was not a priority for them.
There is something all pilots are taught when they first start flying around in spamcans which tends to stick with them for the rest of their flying careers (whether private or professional). It's a simple series of three words .....
Aviate ..... Navigate ..... Communicate
i.e.
First and foremost you fly the plane.
When you're happy the plane is doing what it should be doing, you can move on to figuring out where the
you are !
Once you've done that, you can communicate. This too has three levels of priority, in the following order :
(1) Radio work (so other airspace stakeholders know what your intentions are and allowing you to obtain clearances).
(2) If you're lucky enough to have cabin crew... relaying messages to them
(3) Talking to passengers
Of course, if there are two of you up front, CRM and company SOPs introduce an added layer of complexity, but fundamentally a lot of the above still applies in terms of prioritising who you talk to and when.
That is why ....
I got the impression they were quite busy, and that talking to me was not a priority for them
Is to be expected in the event of something else going on to keep those in the pointy end busy.