A similar event occurred with an EK crew who were given Final Warning letters and a financial penalty.
I'm guessing a Final Warning letter means that you're on Double Secret Probation.
AirBubba - if you log onto Budapest 15 minutes prior to entry, how does the previous centre contact you using CPDLC? I ask as most of the sectors I control will be crossed by a B777 in less than 10 minutes. If they are already logged on to the next FIR before even entering the sector then doesn't that defeat the object in the first place?
Good point, I'm wondering if that 15 minute prior rule is legacy verbiage from the Cold War ball notes for voice communications on that route.
The use of CPDLC is not mandatory in this airspace and is conducted at the discretion of ATC and at the initiative of the pilots concerned.
So maybe they weren't using CPDLC, it sure would have been nice for the controllers to be able to send up a ding with a frequency.
I don’t know the exact frequency of this kind of incident but I think it’s quite high - possibly several times a day over the whole of European airspace...
Perhaps several incidents of temporary lost comm a day but I don't think that many intercepts would go unnoticed in these times of selfies with the hijacker and social media.