[Bill14564]

Originally Posted by BrianL99

"I've never done it and don't know how to do it, but I know you what the Pilots did wrong and I know how".

"I've never flown an airplane, but I've read news reports and know how to analyze flight data recorder".

Common sense and reasoning?

2 ATP rated professional pilots have commented on the thread and offered professional opinions that contradict the amateur opinions being expressed. A professional aircraft safety investigator has been quoted as saying there's no evidence this was a "suicide" crash ... but that doesn't seem to deter the rampant speculation.

Only on TOTV.

No, not only on TOTV. The "appeal to authority" and "ad hominem" logical fallacies occur many times outside TOTV also.

2 ATP rated professional pilots (I only noticed one in the thread) clearly have some expertise in flying a plane but unless they have engineered, programmed, maintained, or flown the 787 they don't necessarily have expertise in analyzing the cause of an incident. Beyond that, I don't believe even the one provided a professional opinion that contradicted anyone; he/she simply suggested we would learn more when the official investigation had concluded.

Conversely, the lack of a commercial license does not make one incapable of analyzing the available data. "Expert" is a word generally used to identify an individual with a certification or documented experience and while the awarding of a certificate is taken to be evidence of knowledge, the absence of a certificate does not prove a lack of knowledge. A picture of a cockpit was presented with the challenge to find the cutoff switch - that was actually very simple and doesn't require anything like an ATP rating. Underestimating another's knowledge (or overestimating one's own) is often a mistake.