As I say both 'debunk' the ringing phenomena as being down to the technology sending the dial tone regardless of the plane and the phones being destroyed. None of them suggest that the story is hoax or that the relatives are deluded.

But that would suggest their phones don't work the same way as ours as ours go straight to voice mail when the phone is answered (it's a trope of romantic tragedy these days that the partner of a fictional recently deceased person rings the phone of the dead person to hear their voice mail message).

This is how conspiracy theories snow ball.

In 9/11 we were told that people on the flights called their relatives when the technology to do so wasn't apparently yet available. Something that could probably be explained in a sober fashion but usually gets lumped in with phrases like tin-foil-hat. Similarly the recipients reported that some of the messages sounded robotic (which could be put down to stress both from the caller or recipient) but is often laughed out.

I have no problem with people asking questions or daring to speculate. I can see why some of the speculations should be open to ridicule but the questions in these cases tend to be valid.

Fox news has always had a tabloid mentality but I've been shocked recently by just how tabloid the BBC news page is getting.

I don't need to know about microwaved cats or a man left on the road with his penis cut off. Where's the news in that?