Scruffy, why would the co-pilot just not open the cockpit door using the emergency access???
Graham321, why does being a pilot for a major airline prevent a person from having suicidal tendencies? Having been a commercial pilot in airlines for quite a number of years now I have had the unfortunate job of telling you that I have known / known of quite a few pilots and cabin crew who have taken their own lives. Thankfully none of them have done so at work but we all know of quite a few cases of apparent pilot/crew suicide or attempted suicide (egypt air / silk air / fed ex). The problem we have in our profession is people like you who put these unrealistic expectations on crew which drive the problem underground. Please read:
Qantas allowed suicidal pilot to continue flying - Story - Business - 3 News
Now I don't know if this is a case of pilot suicide, but to rule it out just because pilots don't do that is stupid.
There is a lot of misconception out there around suicide, people who are about to kill themselves are not always depressed, in fact a recent study that I recently read said that often people appear to be happier than normal because they have made the decision to end it all and that is a load off their mind. People don't always do it in an obvious manner, the world is full of people who just disappear, making your aircraft disappear is actually quite a 'face saving' way of doing it as if the aircraft is never found or totally destroyed then suicide is very very hard to prove, this means you may not be labelled as someone who killed themselves and insurance etc. will still pay out.
Take this aircraft, if it is ever found and their are not faults found with it, we will find that the CVR is of little use as it may have only recorded the last 2 hours of silent flight deck, the FDR will be of little use as it will just show that someone flew the aircraft to its final destination (if that happened here). So what we are left with are 239 possible suspects.