Trust me, I did trust you as an Air Traffic Controller in the...

Trust me, I did trust you as an Air Traffic Controller in the over 8,000 hours I spent in the air as a Flight Engineer.

I've been involved in many failures, emergencies and weather event situations in both the simulator and in the aircraft. The worst handled situations frequently had an ineffective communication factor involved in them. (That's not a comment about this particular event)
CRM (Crew Resource Management) made massive advances during my time flying. Successful implementation depends on the Captain keeping the entire crew aware and involved in what is happening.
I personally believe there would have been time during that period for at least a couple of quick updates, if not to the passengers, at least to the cabin supervisor to pass on to the passengers. The front enders would have been busy, yes, but it would have been all very controlled and assisted by automated systems (hence no Flight Engineer ). The Pilots would have done many very similar scenarios in the flight simulator, and in my time at least, with multiple systems failures or an engine failure thrown in to add to the pressure.

Could go on, but I think we've steered far enough away from the LTR AGM meet up discussion.