Originally Posted by
LightAttack
The complaints about the newbies posting here isn't that they are "listening", the problem is that they are putting down stakes and making ridiculous pronouncements as to what happened.
You say you are an "experimental psychologist", whatever that is. If you are a psychologist, you, more than we, would understand human behavior. If one of the crew took over and committed "suicide" by running the jet out of gas after disabling/killing everyone else by depressurizing the plane long enough to deplete the onboard oxygen, why? Why fly for hours after taking over the plane instead of pointing it at the deck - as has been done before?
You're the psychologist, if it were terrorism, why has there been no pronouncement by some terrorist group? They live for that crap. Educate us.
I'll bite on that. I've been involved in numerous suicide investigations. In only one did the person go off into the middle of nowhere and leave no trace of where to find him - and even he used his phone, allowing us to locate him by the phone.
If one pilot had suicide plans and locked the other out, the other and the rest of the passengers would have had many hours to react, if other information is correct (like staying airborne for hours.)
If one pilot immobilized the other before flying into the yonder, then the remaining attendants and pax still had hours to realize something was amiss and react. I don't buy that not one person would have sent a text which eventually got picked up, especially since event apparently began near land. I don't think it is probable that no one on the flight had a sat phone or device that would have picked up something.
There just seem to be way too many "what ifs" in that scenario. Suicidal persons who drag out the event are not completely sure of their course of action, in my experience. Four to seven hours would have been a long, long time to contemplate and be dissuaded. It could happen, but it would be highly unusual in my experience.
Terrorism? Those criminals don't seem to be much different than any other - they generally cannot keep their mouths shut. If our "intelligence" is such a failure that they picked up no clues before or afterwards of such an "accomplishment" for terrorists, we will be in a world of trouble for their failure. I find it hard to believe there would be that many failures and omissions. Possible? Yes. Probable? No.
The only certainty I've seen is that there's a whole lot we don't know. The other certainty I'll bank on is that, regardless of the outcome, flights coming/going here at least will see some changes: constant gps, transponders that can't be disabled, several hours of cockpit recording instead of two hour loops, and more pilot scrutiny. That will be a shame - you already suffer extreme scrutiny due to the actions of a few, just like I do. If your profession is like mine, the last people they will ask for input will be the pilots.
All of this is simply my opinion and I reserve the right to change my mind and be wrong!