shook_17;1592471 wrote:This is just gettin insane. Something fishy is going on. Book it.
Not much of what we do know adds up. They are saying there's no proof of pilots being involved in some plot. There's no indication they were depressed or suicidal (though often we miss the signs until AFTER we know someone commited suicide). There's been no terrorist chatter. No links, as of yet, to any suspected terrorist/hijacker on the plane.
The apparent dramatic deviations in altitude shortly around the time the comms/transponder went offline are probably indicative of some sort of struggle, or possibly mechanical failure. Speculation the turn could have been an emergency course correction to a nearby airport, but then there's no distress signal (but its unclear if they could have sent one).
In the event of pressure loss, the plane supposedly will automatically descend rapidly to below 10-14k feet (but a pilot could override that). What I've read indicates passengers only have @ 15 minutes of oxygen, and the pilots would have a little more (plus possibly a small reserve tank). At cruising altitude, hypoxia sets in within 30 seconds, but a pilot's ability to respond coherently goes much quicker than that. But assume they got their mask on because of the course correction (they are trained to put the mask on as absolute first priority). And it doesn't make much sense that they wouldn't have been able to make an emergency landing.
But you can't rule out suicide, and hypoxia isn't a bad way to go. Lacking any viable connection to hijacking or terrorism, then process of elimination leaves you with pilot suicide given the plane appeared to be mechanically sound.