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Old 16th Dec 2022, 06:56
  #62 (permalink)  
dr dre
 
Join Date: Jun 2011
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Originally Posted by Eclan
I suspect the theory extends not necessarily to an exploding bottle but to an overall system failure, possibly leading to an explosive loss of components but not an explosive decompression.
So a system failure that takes out the transponder, radios, ACARS, cabin altitude warning, but leaves every other system intact. That’s a very specific failure to mimic human intervention almost perfectly.

If as is stated the cabin altitude warning threshold altitude value is reset to 15,000ft then this gives ample opportunity for a human (especially a smoker) to be gradually overcome by hypoxia, especially if he's overwhelmed with automation failure and other technically complex and confusing system failures on top of a diversion.
15,000 ft is the elevation of cities in Peru and Bolivia, so not exactly where hypoxia sets in without supplemental 02. It’s in the 20,000ft range.

So that theory postulates the aircraft suffered a catastrophic systems failure, turned 180 degrees towards what they believed was the nearest alternate, which was Penang, but eventually the pilots become overwhelmed by hypoxia.

But top of descent for Penang was about 10 minutes after that turn. So they would’ve been incapacitated so much they didn’t have the thought capacity to descend. But 20 minutes later they weren’t incapacitated enough to make a 45 degree right turn to the WNW overhead Penang and then start tracking towards the Andaman sea where there are no alternate airports, and then over 30 minutes later make a left turn to fly over the top of Sumatra and out over the Indian Ocean?

That just does not make sense, and is impossible to play out in reality. It means you have to believe they were overcome by hypoxia to make irrational decisions but then recovered from that hypoxia to make conscious inputs once again a long time later.
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