I'm not a pilot and I am struggling to understand a few points.
Firstly from what I have seen and heard on here and the news the aircraft started a decent just over the coast with a number of major airports available for diversion how normal would it be for a pilot to continue on a heading to the Alps knowing there was some kind of problem no mater how small surely you would not head to a massive hazard knowing you had started some kind of a decent.
Also how normal is it not to squawk 7700 keeping in mind the aircraft had 10 minutes of continued decent heading to mountainous territory.
And I'm struggling to understand why would a pilot not contact ATC even just to say we have a small problem we are trying to fix it and we need to decend
Last but not least would ATC not have contacted the aircraft to ask why they were decending.
I know there might be reasons but it just doesn't make any sense to me and once again I'm not a pilot but as a professional driver I would not head into a situation where problems would or could get worse if I was on a A road with stopping options I would not commit to a motorway slip road knowing I had an engine warning light on in my cab or a puncture on my trailer.