dicksairbus asks:
Why bother going to FL450 and then back to FL295 and making a lot of unexplainable turns?
Too many whys
Think in terms of two pilots locked in their cockpit - with only a marginally visible horizon, no altimetry, no heading info, no cockpit lights, no navigability. They tried to turn back once things started to go sour - but once your systems are taken out, you need some sort of roll-out heading advisory. At that westerly turning juncture, having decided to turn back, it all became a world of hurt. No flight instruments make Jack a dull boy. That was probably as good as it would ever get for that hapless crew.
How could that happen? A nasty gremlin in the E&E (aka avionics) bay perhaps?