[Southack]

"Most likely it was not an incoming call to the cell phone since the plane was over the Atlantic."

Can't say. The phone rang 20 minutes after takeoff from London, meaning the NYC-bound plane would have been over Ireland or Wales/Scotland (you're in the climb phase of flight, averaging perhaps a mere 300mph net ground speed, which for 20 minutes is only 100 miles horizontal from London).

Also, the article doesn't really detail if the phone was a true cell phone or a satellite phone.

But, the record of who dialed the phone will be interesting (if it did receive a call instead of just having an alarm go off). Since no mention of that is made, one can presume that it was censored by the police (i.e. no one spoke to the reporter about it) if it was applicable.

If a dry run, then I'd guess the dialing phone number would be from a public pay phone or "anonymous" pre-paid cell or hacked/chipped sat phone...but I'd put the dry run option low on the list.

[Shelayne]

Can't say. The phone rang 20 minutes after takeoff from London, meaning the NYC-bound plane would have been over Ireland or Wales/Scotland

Oh my Lord. I just got chills. Pan Am 103 over Lockerbie. Twenty-two minutes into flight.

I received my training packet that day. I almost didn't go.

[stlnative]

Oops... I read earlier they were halfway through the flight when it occurred. This story says 20 minutes or so into the flight.

My guess is that officials know who owns the phone by now. What would be odd is if the phone did not have any numbers stored in it or any type of call history on it or if the phone and bag are free of fingerprints.