Originally Posted by
RI830
Has anyone proposed the theory of rapid decompression which disabled the crew and the aircraft stayed on autopilot after crew initiated an off course deviation?
I suspect crew incapacitation of some sort as being more likely than terror. Fire might explain the lost XPDR if electrical systems were involved. Decompression would not explain the XPDR. Unless the crew inadvertently turned it off while switching to 7700. Or maybe they simply flew out of range of secondary radar in the area?
Somewhere in the chain of what happened is going to be one highly-improbable link...one that will have occurred non-the less. Once that link is identified and proven to a reasonable degree everything else will make sense.