inkpenspur
Allan Nielsen
I had lunch with some very esteemed Aviation UWs today and the general consensus of opinion round the table was that it was pilot suicide
My neighbour flies these for BA, and right at the outset he thought it was suicide by one of the flight crew. Apparently they do know that the plane climbed to its maximum ceiling height (about 40K ft) and stayed there for 20 minutes just after its last communication. At this height, if the plane was then decompressed, the oxygen masks in the passenger cabin which are passive do not work. Only the ****pit masks would have worked... 20 mins would have been enough to ensure the passengers and crew outside the ****pit were dead. The plane is then known to have dived down low, and headed south. The BA pilot view is that the pilot or co pilot got the other one to leave the ****pit on an errand, locked the door from inside (which then can't be opened from the cabin) and proceeded to climb and then de-pressurise.
Not much of a conspiracy, but logical