They were out of range of VHF communications (400 miles offshore). They would’ve had to use HF shortwave, which is borderline useless in thunderstorms—think of your car AM radio. Besides, if things are going to hell in a bucket in the cockpit, the first rule pilots follow is simple: Fly the plane. *Everything* else, including radio, is secondary to keeping the airplane moving forward and not hitting anything.
}:-)4
HF? I've transmitted on HF almost 8000 miles to the other side of the planet, during thunderstorms with barely 100 watts of power.
I might as well speculate along with others...Seems rather suspect that at this altitude, with several minutes prior to impact, not one word was radioed out by the crew. Even struggling with the aircraft, there are at least two pilots in the cockpit that should have quickly transmitted a signal of distress. Would have taken about 5 seconds to do this.
One of two things here, an explosion affecting critical controls and electronics occurred, or there was an immediate breakup of the aircraft caused by something else, like severe turbulence.
The HF radio used by transport aircraft is SSB (single side band) and is very effective over long distances. It doesn’t matter about the local interference from the storm because where the signal will be received it is probably electrically “quiet” and not influenced by the interference at the origin end. Most likely, the data was transmitted over a satellite data link which would support high speed and be very reliable.
The events, as outlined, show a very troubled aircraft coming apart in flight for whatever reason. A tragedy by any measure.