Originally Posted by RiSq
So - If this was an outright suicide, why not just nose dive and plough it into the ground. Why the 8 minutes of pretty much controlled descent? See, that bit is the bit which doesn't make sense. There was no deviation to the left or right, simply straight down.
Don't forget he was only a 600 hour pilot with 100 hours on the bus. He probably needed the autopilot on for everything (automation dependency).