An A320 flight crew lost contact with ATC when distracted by cockpit chatter.

Attributes
ACN	865983
Time
Date	200912
Local Time Of Day	0601-1200
Place
Locale Reference	ZDC.ARTCC
State Reference	VA
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	A320
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Cruise
Flight Plan	IFR
Component
Aircraft Component	Air/Ground Communication
Person 1
Function	Captain Pilot Flying
Qualification	Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 120 Flight Crew Total 13500 Flight Crew Type 445
Events
Anomaly	ATC Issue All Types Aircraft Equipment Problem Critical Deviation - Procedural Published Material / Policy Inflight Event / Encounter Other / Unknown

Narrative:

Cruising at FL360 we went NORDO. Dispatch had just sent us a message saying ACARS didn't send the out and off times so I sent those to him. We then passed over a flight plan fix so I sent dispatch a position report and did the fuel score on the howgoesit. It was a full airplane with two jumpseaters and we were talking about our respective trips blowing up because of the weather. We were on cockpit speakers and had guard on the #2. There was radio chatter on the speakers the whole time. After reestablishing contact with ATC I looked at the ACARS messages from dispatch and realized we had been NORDO for about 45 minutes. A couple things come to mind. Why didn't dispatch use SELCAL to contact us? Did ATC attempt to contact us on guard and we didn't hear it?

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: An A320 flight crew lost contact with ATC when distracted by cockpit chatter.

Narrative: Cruising at FL360 we went NORDO. Dispatch had just sent us a message saying ACARS didn't send the out and off times so I sent those to him. We then passed over a flight plan fix so I sent Dispatch a position report and did the fuel score on the howgoesit. It was a full airplane with two jumpseaters and we were talking about our respective trips blowing up because of the weather. We were on cockpit speakers and had guard on the #2. There was radio chatter on the speakers the whole time. After reestablishing contact with ATC I looked at the ACARS messages from Dispatch and realized we had been NORDO for about 45 minutes. A couple things come to mind. Why didn't Dispatch use SELCAL to contact us? Did ATC attempt to contact us on guard and we didn't hear it?

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of April 2012 and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.