[Paisan]

plane diverted to a remote airfield?

According to my Chinese wife who regularly peruses Chinese Web-Sites, some of the people awaiting friends and family have called the cell phones of the missing. The phones ring, but no one answers...

If the phones were wet or destroyed, would they ring?

[Veto!]

Pretty good article on phone technology here:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-switch/wp/2014/03/10/technology-tracks-our-every-move-how-can-an-entire-plane-go-missing/?hpid=z3

[ottbmare]

According to my Chinese wife who regularly peruses Chinese Web-Sites, some of the people awaiting friends and family have called the cell phones of the missing. The phones ring, but no one answers... If the phones were wet or destroyed, would they ring?

Yes. The caller hears ringing, but it's just an electronic convenience the cell carrier provides to let the caller know there's an effort to connect. I have called a cell that is dead and hasn't been used in six months, and I hear a ringing noise. Means nothing. As long as the bill is paid, there is going to be a ring.

[stuck_in_new_orleans]

Yes it would ring. lol