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Originally Posted by caseycasebeer
Very interesting article from George Martin. He certainly knows the aircraft!
It will be interesting to see what turns up ... if anything.
My 'guess it that the Captain did this as the desperation act of someone who felt he didn't have much to lose. He was angry at the System:
(1) The day before his departure he was at the sentencing (five years in prison...) of the former Malasian prime minister, whom he supported. (Various reports called the Captain a zealot or political extremist in support of the PM. There also seems to be an assumption that the PM was the victim of a political witch-hunt.)
(2) That same day (or the day before), his wife moved out and took their three children with her. Unconfirmed reports were that they were "estranged," but still living together. It was unknown if they were actually divorced.
Clearly, the Captain had a lot on his mind, and saw his World quickly unraveling.
My hunch is that his act was very impulsive, and he may very well have been acting alone. There could be some terrorist oriented planning involved, but so far I haven't seen it. This guy may have decided to commit suicide ... but he chose to take 238 other's with him, and do it in a very complex manner.
The item about the plane going up to 45,000MSL (well above the service ceiling...) is perplexing. The only reason I can think-of might be to disable/kill the crew and passengers via hypoxia. (Strategy: a) tell the copilot "get some rest ... I'll take this leg of the trip") b) Captain put's on supplemental oxygen mask c) reduce/decompress cabin pressure while in a steady climb to the final flight level d) keep aircraft at 45,000 long enough that he's sure everyone aboard is asleep or dead. e) abruptly dive aircraft back to 5000MSL (as has been reported) f) fly the aircraft to a hastily predetermined ditching point g) Splash.
It will be interesting to learn, if we ever do..., what happened to the aircraft. I believe there may well be some systems that could help in the location/recovery effort, but since the expectation is that all aboard are now deceased - it is felt there is no rush. In the coming weeks/months/years information may be leaked about where the aircraft was located ... but we will probably never know the details of 'how it was located. (Years ago we had the Glomar Explorer locate/retrieve a Russian submarine ... I expect there are "systems" out there now that make the Glomar Explorer look ancient; and governments don't want to tip their hands prematurely.)
...but it's Fascinating to follow the story and the investigation.
Best,
Casey
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That's very interesting information about the pilot, especially when you look back over early reports about him--upstanding citizen, longtime pilot with thousands of hours of flight, extremely interested in his craft, etc.
I agree we may never know. But from what the AA pilot reports, I think it would be easy to fool a hijacker into thinking all transponder systems were disabled when they weren't--making it more likely that it was the pilot who did it.