Still doesn’t explain the three flight attendants not sending up a red flag much earlier. If they were all in the cockpit, we can pretty much rule out “sleeping” as what the merry fivesome was engaged in. And if they were out in the cabin where they belong, I’m sure some passengers would have noticed them all sleeping. Something odd was going here, because it sounds like the entire crew of 5 was completely unaware of what was going on with the flight.
Routine seems to work that way. Most of the time the attendands are not aware, like say the passengers, that they are on a long tube traveling at a ridiculous altitude.
I am not a frequent flyer, but have flown dozens of times and to pass the time I take photos out the window, and follow the flight on a map, based on time elapsed. So I am usually aware of where we are from takeoff to touchdown using the old "dead reckoning" method.
Unfortunately, that is no help when the aircraft is sent to a holding pattern 20 or 30 miles away. Having no way to know, even if a passenger noticed a deviation, it could well be a normal solution for congested gates.
OK, maybe 150 miles in a straight line past the airport might be a clue, LOL
Apparently, the company tried repeated to reach their pilots directly without success over that lost hour.
And several different towers tried with no success for that hour plus.
It must have been loud inside the cockpit with all those bells and whistles going off.
The cabin crew could have set off their noise makers had the cabin crew been awake ?