Originally Posted by
Loose rivets
My mind's wide open on the actual cause but I added the dialogue into the equation when assessing their state of brain function. Stress may indeed have played a part in the continued repeating of the requests, but I'm suspicious that the crew did not tell the admirably calm ATC that they were not able to physically navigate towards the Atlantic, except by repeating the question. ATC in fact told them they were continuing to turn left, and the response to that was not normal, even taking into account language and stress. Of course, at that point they may well have been really fighting the aircraft, and may even have had the echoes of the Jakarta flight rattling around in their minds. But they want a big area to splash in, that they're determined about, but where a sheltered river would have given a much greater chance of survival at and after the ditching. However, changing horses on my bet again, they may well have been dutifully trying to keep the population safe thinking they were going to be throwing their charge at the water with very crude control and their minds going from two disparate but horrible scenarios.
So, deeply stressed or affected brains? All bets off now.
Stressed certainly, but I agree, if they had said they were unable to maintain headings or judge them, ATC would have been able to help in a very different way. I wondered if they keep turning in one direction unknowingly therefore can't know when to rollout towards the sea. Also wondered if they thought that they couldn't maintain a straight flight, at least the sea would give them the best option as they might have thought they'd be unable to line up with a runway. This is certainly going to be interesting, although I assume it will boil down to some maintenance mistakes and perhaps injudicious flight control tests before departure. I'm not blaming the crew but it is odd to suddenly lose those systems after departure when hydraulics are seemingly fine and the plane looks undamaged (according to the landing video).