I think that the more conservative bet is found in the Indian article posted at #104 that the “line reattached” as it passed over the island and then just as quickly disattached as it passed out of range with no call being made.
After spending the last 23 minutes at 45000ft without oxygen I’m sure the co-pilot was dead.
And if a call had been attempted there is no guarantee that it wasn’t the pilot using the dead co-pilot’s phone to try to notify whomever — “mission is accomplished”.
Why else would the pilot be flying so low over an island with cell towers unless he was the one who wanted to make an untraceable cell call??? He does everything he can to avoid radar detection but then flies low over a cell tower with 200 cellphones onboard???
Either way this bottom line of the article seems to sum it all up:
“The Malaysian government and media have repeatedly contradicted each other and themselves over details of the search and criminal investigation.”
U.S. Official sets the record straight:
Malaysia Airlines Flight 370: Co-pilot’s cell phone was on, U.S. official says
(CNN) — The phone of the co-pilot of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 was on and made contact with a cell tower in Malaysia about the time the plane disappeared from radar, a U.S. official told CNN on Monday.
However, the U.S. official — who cited information shared by Malaysian investigators — said there was no evidence the co-pilot, Fariq Abdul Hamid, had tried to make a call.
The official told CNN’s Pamela Brown on Monday that a cell-phone tower in Penang, Malaysia — about 250 miles from where the flight’s transponder last sent a signal — detected the co-pilot’s phone searching for service roughly 30 minutes after authorities believe the plane made a sharp turn westward.
The details do appear to reaffirm suggestions based on radar and satellite data that the plane was off course and was probably flying low enough to obtain a signal from a cell tower, the U.S. official said.
U.S. officials familiar with the investigation told CNN they have been told that no other cell phones were picked up by the Penang tower.
Pilots are supposed to turn off their cell phones before pushing back from the gate.
“It would be very rare in my opinion to have someone with a cell phone on in the cockpit,” safety analyst David Soucie said. “It’s never supposed to be on at all. It’s part of every check list of every airline I am familiar with.”
When the plane first went missing, authorities said millions of cell phone records were searched, looking for evidence that calls had been made from the plane after it took off, but the search turned up nothing.
Fox News reports that the search officials are admitting its a possibility the plane did land on the ground someplace else and that they have been searching in the wrong places.
Something tells me the there has been a leaked rumor of an impending or upcoming “revelation” about the whole scenario.