Originally Posted by
Ornis
ELTs switch on when the aircraft crashes but often the aerial breaks so the transmission is not heard and they don't work under water. Hence the suggestions of having EPIRBs that float. Life rafts have PLBs with an ON switch.
Whatever is done to improve security, nothing can stop determined pilots killing passengers; it might make it more difficult to disguise the fact and get them the benefit of the doubt.
I still find the suicide theory very hard to accept.
If this is suicide it is surely one of the most complicated and bizarre suicides in history. Leaving aside the astonishing cruelty of taking 226 others with you, what counts against murder-suicide, in my opinion is the infeasibly elaborate nature of the plan. You have to ensure the FO (or Captain) was out of the cockpit, passengers and crew incapacitated, you have to make sure this happens on an ATC handover, then you have to sneak past the radar of half a dozen countries and fly seven hours into the Indian Ocean somewhere.
Furthermore this audacious and intricate plan must be executed perfectly by an individual who is so miserable that he no longer wants to go on living. So many things could go wrong with this.
Admittedly there have been pilot suicides in the past, but they have been simple and quick. If murder-suicide is the best explanation that can be made fit the data so far, then I prefer no explanation until something else turns up.