Rather than poo-pooing the journalist, I'd say by his descripton, it sounds to me like the flight suffered a stall at high altitude. This wouldn't be a first, by the way.
The description certainly sounds like an inflight upset due to stall (perhaps the aircraft was near or above optimum for its weight and available thrust and turbulent air just gave it a helping hand) and a B737 in the hands of (how shall I say this?) a low timer, less experienced pilot, foreign pilot, (what the heck, you decide which) could very easily lose 6,000 feet in a recovery. No surprise here.
Allow me to speculate on what MIGHT have happened....
Captain leaves the flight deck for a comfort break. F/O has the con. Muscat clears the flight to FL370 (but the aircraft might have been too heavy for 37 and the F/O accepts the clearance to climb without checking his performance chart for acceptability of the new altitude, or else he did, but wasn't sure what the squiggly lines meant). Off he goes to FL370. The aeroplane struggles to reach the new flight level and airspeed slowly decays once level at the new altitude. As aircraft rate of energy loss increases so does the decrease in airspeed.
1) Stick shaker activates
2) Auto pilot trips off
3) The nose drops
4) F/O suffers a complete surprise due to possibly being inattentive or heads down
5) Grabs the controls and pulls up whilst slamming the throttles fully forward (cuz that's how he was probably taught which is incorrect) in an attempt to recover
6) Secondary stall occurs as the wing hasn't recovered aerodynamic lift
7) Several thousand feet are lost by this point in time (in fact, this is where his descent turns into a plummet due to actual ROD)
8) F/O eventually gains enough airspeed to maintain altitude and control
9) F/O gets the FCP and auto pilot organized (possible RAs during recovery due to altitude busts on the way down and up sending MCT ATC into a tizzy)
10) Aircraft is returned to an acceptable altitude
11) F/O notices a rather odd but familiar smell in the cockpit, but also notices the Captain hasn't returned from the dunny.
12) Captain steps into the flight deck holding something in his hand and asks the F/O whether or not he purchased a draw ticket in the Dubai Duty Free for the Porsche? To which the F/O replys "No sir, I didn't have the 500 dirhams, but Muscat ATC wish to speak with you on Comm 1. Something about your altitude and crossing traffic, I think." To which the Captain says, "Right. What's that odor then, and why are your trousers wet? You haven't been flying through thunderstorms again while I was in the loo, have you number 1?"
Indian aviation surely is exciting, what? Especially these last couple of months. What does it have in store for us next?
Did the Express passengers get charged extra for the surprise thrill ride or just for the sanies?
Gee, I can hardly wait for the next one.
Willie
