Originally Posted by
Capt Kremin
..... and implies the calls could have been routed elsewhere on the aircraft..
You are grasping, Capt. It does NOT imply anything of the sort. It is a statement explaining to the reader where a call from the ground to the aircraft gets sent to, i.e. the cockpit.
Your argument is analogous to me telling you that if you turn a yoke to the left then the aircraft will roll to the left. And you then saying, well, it could also roll right because I didn't tell you it wouldn't roll right........
Read pg 49 of the report. It clearly explains what comms were available in the cabin, namely email and SMS
only, through the IFE. The voice capability was seat-to-seat only on 9M-MRO. It's there in black & white unless you want to argue the report is presenting alternative facts; or that because the report doesn't explicitly exclude voice-out-of-aircraft capability that it might have been actually available?!
I'm not 100% sure but my understanding is that the cabin-crew station has the same capability as all the cabin, i.e. the IFE capability. I concede I am not sure of that, but again: the report does NOT state the ISM/CSM station had a voice-out capability so why do you suggest it might?
Yes - there was a SMS/email out capability and if you wanted to disable that then you disable the SATCOM system. But move on to pg 54. At 1825 there was a SATCOM logon from the aircraft. Normal SATCOM operation resumed, but with no data and no flight ID. The IFE also set up a connection for SMS/email. No data was ever sent, though, and another call from ground to aircraft went unanswered.
For what purpose would someone disable the SATCOM system around 1722Z and then about an hour later re-enable it but not use it at all?
Pg 53 also states that a GES would record a SATCOM log-off initiated from the cockpit. No such log-off was recorded, suggesting power interruption instead. Presumably that could be circuit-breakers... or something else. If someone pulled the CB's, they would have presumably had to reset them for the events at 1825Z to happen?
We simply don't know what happened. All this could be from nefarious actions OR a major technical problem. But distorting known facts and suggesting other "facts" by "implying" things to support your particular bias, when you really don't know, is just wrong.