Originally Posted by
savall
The rapid decompression is starting to actually make more sense. Possibly knocked out the transponders, pilots notice too late for oxygen, make a turn toward the only direction the airplane would be guaranteed over water when the fuel eventually runs dry.
It may end up being explained by this. An interesting list of incidents is here, beginning with some of the infamous Comet failures. Obviously most people know about the more recent Helios incident.
Uncontrolled decompression - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia