Deliberate act?
What if;
- Top of climb, cruise checks done, either pilot goes to the lav for a long overdue, midnight
pee.
- Said pilot disabled in fwd galley, flight deck access obtained by accomplice.
OR, access gained when coffee being brought up front with insufficient vigilance....
- Disableing of pilot(s).
From there on only a very basic knowledge/training should enable these perps to deactivate the two major systems that actively send signals to the ground with position and other data.
- Descend/climb 500' and set a heading of choice. Only method of detection would be
primary returns.
There could be numerous reasons for wanting to keep an aircraft flyable for several hours and the end game could be either a 9/11 type scenario, an opportunistic attempt at kidnapping, extortion, theft, industrial sabotage etc. However, while the initial few minutes of the takeover could be achieved with little or no aviation knowledge the guys now at the controls might be in over their heads and not able to get to their end game...