It was a "freak" accident because so many holes in the cheese had to line up that day;
door report---switch left in manual after maintenance action---FO misses switch setting in pre-flight scan---Captain misses the same---horn at ten thousand cabin confuses not one but BOTH pilots-Equip cooling problem that is due to lack of pressurization SIDETRACKS both pilots from the real issue---Master Caution oxygen drop annunciation is missed due masking---Plane is light and quickly climbs to its cleared level 340---Captain is EAST German native and accent is strong---FO has just failed captain upgrade and is feeling resentful---they DONT like each other---Helios FA's and flt deck didnt brief together---who knew the code???--FA's remain sitting while plane climbs and climbs---would you sit in your seat while the plane continues to climb?
Who would believe such a scenario?It sounds like science fiction.Precedents of this type of accident (insidious failure to pressurize) have happened but there was always something that broke the chain eg,one flight crew member recognizes what is going on OR FA's making their way to the flight deck regardless of SOP.
If you factor in the old design of the B737 (one horn for 2 different problems) and the fact that failure to pressurize in a climb is insidious and could be a nasty trap,theres no doubt in my mind that this was a "one off" crash and that the flight crew were responsible.Were they unfit?No,pilots have taken off without flaps and stalled.Pilots stalled a 737 on final because they werent monitoring airspeed.Mistakes are part of human nature.
If the two pilots did not get on and were both viewed as weak under pressure,then I would have some measure of agreement in the accusation that they should not have flown together as a crew.But hindsight is 20/20.