I miss read the story. I honestly thought they were saying they were being called by the phones of the people on the plane. If they are calling and getting rings, that is just the system doing it. It doesn't mean there is a functioning phone.
Yeah, it shouldn't do that but you get all sorts of inconsistent behavior when calling a phone that is out of range or turned off.
Days after the incident..no word on tracking of those phones.
As a family member, I would want to know why.