That's what the speculation is. I'm still confused about the flight path though. It was fairly near their destination, but the plane made a U turn, headed back southwest, over DC, then into Virginia. What would make a plane do that? Maybe by that time the pilot was so confused he started doing odd things to the autopilot. Possibly one of the passengers tried to turn back?
I heard of people as close as 20 miles from me saying they heard it. These people are used to Proving Grounds testing, so they thought, strange that they are testing on a Sunday.
On a Lear Jet type plane such as this Cessna, do the pilots have backup oxygen or is this only for large airliners? You'd think there would be some type of sensor or alarm to let you know there is depressurization, even a small one.
There is a gaseous oxygen system where the crew have quick-donning masks and the passengers all have overhead drop masks. But as always it needs to be working.
You'd ask atc so you don't have a mid air collision but if i knew my oxygen was dwindling and the emergency oxygen wasn't working I'd do that on the way down without delay. I know those small planes don't have that warning system so you don't crash into another plane but that probability is low and you can ask on the way down if one can notice they're losing alertness since by then you'll become unconscious very soon. I think the apple watch and other sport watches have that feature so I'd probably wear whichever one has the longest battery life in that continuous oxygen reading mode and fly. Cheap insurance to have that on you at altitude. Only one person needs it.
Yes. Do whatever you need to ensure safety of flight, and declare an emergency if you can use the radio.
I was 50 miles northwest at the time so no.
Initiating an emergency descent is #3 on the Citation checklist, after donning your mask and setting the microphone switch to "MIC OXY MASK".
But were they even able to don their masks. If they knew to i couldn't see how they still crashed. Doesn't seem they any mechanical or electrical issues. I have a feeling their oxygen system failed, they easily would've been able to get down to where they can breathe with the short time the oxygen allots them but it seems they didn't.
Don't modern planes have a lot of nanny features to prevent you from doing acrobatics like: "push down all the way, roll upside down, and pull up" to achieve a vertical nose dive? I tried these crazy maneuvers an a Falcon 7X simulator (real cockpit, hydraulics etc.) and got the thing to go upside down, but the computer would not let you do it unless you overpowered it multiple times and there were alarms blaring everywhere. Suicide would make sense if those features had to be overridden otherwise some type of mechanical failure / disintegration of the control surfaces?
Considering the passengers were in the back it would've been impossible for them to do anything about it. Just a single pilot in there to do whatever he wants behind a closed and locked door. Could've also switched many things off like the radio and recorders. Modern passenger planes are supposed to have two in the cockpit at all times from what i understand ever since that incident in 2015 or 16 with that murder suicide in europe.
Just for information sake there is no cockpit door.
That's good to know. But even then I can't see how anyone could make it to the cockpit in time to do anything if the plane started descending that rapidly once they got wind something was wrong.
