They're coming up on when short-range radio should work, when by the regs they should call into ground ATC.  (Neither of them really want to call over and over and update probabilities gradually and painfully until suddenly maybe it works or they hear small traces of sound; they have an untrusted plane to fly.)

"Bets?" he says aloud to the Flight Captain.  Not onboard-market bets; just between the two of them, this bet would be.

"Feels like it could go either way.  Don't want to put numbers on it.  Head full of other problems."

"If there were a third party present to bet with, I'd bet them 80-20 you feel the same way because you didn't name any numbers yourself.  Don't tell me you're gain-seeking by letting me name a price first, you wouldn't mess with that during an emergency."

"I could've already arrived at my odds, and not want to influence your own first-order opinion."

"But no, you're right, my head is also too full and I was waiting to see if you named numbers instead."

"Let's just do it."  This is not a timing-informative statement; they're calling in at the exact default time that procedure would suggest, in case somebody on the other end is expecting them and needs to make any kind of special effort related to getting radios to work.

"Yeah."  In a few more very exact precise seconds.

A cockpit timer makes a high-pitched fneep! sound that would be very difficult to confuse with any of the other sounds a cockpit can make.

He flips the switch at just about exactly the same speed he'd use usually, if anybody's trying to predict that.

"This is Flight 43 to Exception Handling ground control at Station 91, do you copy, please acknowledge."

"Acknowledged Flight 43, this is Exception Handling, you are expected, proceed to land per preplanned route."

"Good to hear, we had absolute comm loss on our side and our passengers were betting on whether we were still in dath ilan.  We are on course for runway per preplanned route, do you have any idea what happened?"

Somehow it's occurring to him that he had managed not to make any advance plans on what to say if this happened, which really goes to show something about where his brain was placing its own internal bets.

"Exception.  On my understanding of reality, Flight 43 has had comms difficulties and has been in only intermittent contact with Exception Handling, but reported they had no other mechanic difficulties and were on course to land safely with us along their preplanned emergency route."

"Our perceived reality is that we lost satellite GPS, transponder, and Network.  Our shortwave radio and emergency backup shortwave radio were able to communicate with each other, but not detect any of the band-identification ticks."

"They would've told me if your transponder went out."

"Do not land without further orders from Exception Handling, repeat do not land on runway, I notice I am confused, say again that Air Traffic Control at Station 91 has noticed its own confusion, I am declaring and escalating an exception inside of the emergency procedure."

There's an alarm going off in the background, audible over the radio but very gently and at a volume which wouldn't otherwise interfere with anyone talking on this frequency.

She thinks very quickly, then.

"Pass conversation."

"Ack.  Air Traffic I am passing this conversation to Captain."

"Air Traffic, nay, I say nay and declare exception, this flight has evidently been gaslit, say again gaslit, I infer this flight has been subjected to detailed control of its perceived reality.  I do not know that you are actually Air Traffic Control.  Proceeding along preplanned route and if I see an unblocked runway on arrival I intend to land on it."

Hooooo wow.  There are a few times in the recorded history of Very Serious predesigned Civilizational procedures where somebody has declared an exception to an exception from an exception.  To be specific, it has happened exactly eleven times, or at this point, twelve.  This is going in all the textbooks, not that they had any real hope of staying out of those anyways.

She considers blowing up the plane before it can land against orders.  Not for very long, but she does consider it.  It's rather the point of having a Law-Abiding Sociopath running air traffic control in the first place.

Then she considers what use an adversary could potentially make of this predictable decision of hers, not to blow up the plane.

"Exception acknowledged.  I presently state that landing will be physically possible for you.  Once landed, move off runway to field at left.  Stay on plane pending further orders.  Do you acknowledge new orders?"

"Captain to what is possibly Air Traffic Control, what is your reasoning for the stay-on-board order?"

"You are landing against Air Traffic orders and I am considering what use an unknown adversary may be attempting to make of that, such as allowing a criminal to escape from the aircraft after it lands.  In lieu of detailed consideration I am trying to minimize further causal consequences of your landing in general."

"The gaslighting of this plane included what must be tampering with our radio equipment, hence in generality tampering with our equipment, I do not trust this plane physically and I want everyone off it."

"Can we agree on a default-plan-pending-further-orders to immediately deplane your passengers, and move them around Station 91 to an indoor area at the rear of the station where everyone can stay quietly under lockdown until Exception Handling descends in force on this incident?"

"I don't have a lot of time to think but it sounds like a reasonable plan from both of our perspectives, on the first few seconds of thought."

"I want to see green and purple lights flashing in the left field before I turn into it.  This will not rule out interception attacks on this conversation, but it will slightly reassure me about whether I have causally interacted with Air Traffic Control at all during this conversation."

(There are, obviously, all sorts of encryption protocols that a plane and air traffic control could be using, if the plane's Network connection was functioning.  This conversation is occurring along a channel that is meant to just-work-robustly-instead-of-going-through-complicated-computer-chips.)

"Acknowledged, you will see green and purple on landing.  Assuming no other exceptions occur."

"My side needs to have internal conversations and with Exception Handling headquarters.  I ask you keep this radio channel open."