Originally Posted by
bratschewurst
This seems very odd. First there were pings simply to get the satellites' attention; now it's claimed the pings were sending significant data. Why would the system be designed that way?
To be honest, it could be a useful feature (e.g. the satellite could tell you were likely to leave coverage in an hour if you were near the edge of the beam and heading outward), but I also suspect it's a misunderstanding. Normally that kind of information would be sent in ADS messages over ACARS, and, if any were received, we'd have known where it went long ago.