The factors pointing to suicide or rudder hardover are equally strong and weak at the same time.
The Captain's supposed financial ruin did not extend to his insolvency, if I remember correctly from the program, they stated in the end that he was solvent by $300k and the insurance policy he took was a loan insurance, not life insurance.
The captain did have a history of pulling out the CVR CB, but this aircraft does have a history of the CVR and FDR failing often. The program never revealed the CB position, it just said that the loss of recording in the CVR "was consistent with that of power being cut from the unit"... ie: it could have been the failure, or a CB pull out... We won't know...
For the rudder hardover, as similar as the three accidents superimposed on one another, there's only one similarity, that is the roll rate to the first 180 degree, after that, the similarities are in my opinion suggestive.
The PCU supplier's settlement out of court and the court verdict does not mean that the rudder hardover happened. The out of court settlement after with the victim's families after the verdict was standard damage limitations. Some other accident court cases have led to out of court settlement despite the defendant not having liability, because it was the cheapest way out and the least damaging way out. The verdict itself was not that the PCU caused the accident, but "whether the jury believed the PCU could have caused the accident" on I think it was 70 questions or more (can't remember).
Rockhound,
Unlike other muslim nations, we're not fans of suicides... culturally... and religiously.
But one thing we can probably conclude, that the NTSC's report was a complete disgrace!
PK-KAR