Description

Loss of communication incidents usually occur in one of three circumstances:

1. Radio Interference
2. Mis-management of communications equipment or mis application of prescribed procedures or
3. Malfunction of communications equipment

Loss of communication may be transitory or prolonged. It most often occurs because of inadvertent mismanagement of aircraft equipment by flight crew.

The term Prolonged loss of communication (PLOC) has no official definition but was used by some people in the period 1995/2005 to describe lengthy periods of loss of communication which were believed to be attribtable to technical causes but, as hard evidence was examined, also became widely attributable to pilots failing to communicate with serviceable equipment.