Once again, the media is speculating. Could have been that both were asleep or it could be as simple as missing a handoff and the center controller didn't catch it. Or they were forgotten about and never even given a handoff and went out of that controllers airspace (it happened to a FedEx DC-10 that flew almost halfway across the country out of ATC contact because a controller forgot to issue a handoff). Could be any number of explanations.

I know missed radio calls are something we've all experienced and it would take a few minutes before the flags start to raise and you realize that something is not right. I can remember one quiet morning coming up from Mexico, involved in a pretty engrossing conversation with the captain. We evidently missed a handoff and it went so far as dispatch having to send us an ACARS message that we were on the wrong frequency. By the time we got the message we had already realized that we missed something and were trying to figure out what frequency we were supposed to be on. Point is it takes a few minutes to suspect something is wrong and then a few more minutes to figure out what frequency you are supposed to be on. Moving at 8 miles a minute, you're looking at going 24-40 miles in the 3-5 minutes it takes you work it out. And thats assuming you catch the error right away.

I understand everyone wants to poke fun at Go! and Mesa in general, but lets not crucify our own based on pure speculation from the next-to-useless media.