38000 feet to ground level is a long time, plenty of time to make a call regardless of the situation at hand
Given the Xpdr etc was lost about FL290, I suspect the radios were not much use.
As others have said, there is no point in making a distress call, unless the person on the other end can act on the info and help your predicament. Contrary to the movies, reaching for the RT switch should be well down the priority list. Apart from anything else, it takes out 1 crew member answering the interminable questions
