The plane got to it's destination and then turned around and went on autopilot directly over DC and went straight until running out of fuel.
If this flight pattern is accurate in the post, then this is a confusing flight. He didn't turn around, he vectored straight for DC. Actually turning around I can understand for lots of reasons, but this turn is odd and seems very deliberately made to arrive at a particular destination. This is honestly the most interesting part to me.
Nobody could figure out all that time to say anything on the radio
It may have been on guard frequency, but you can't be sure anyone is actually listening there. I would assume ATC would be trying to raise the plane from multiple centers on multiple known frequencies and likely last used frequencies.
Once escort gets there, there's not much more to try than guard some more, rock the wings and/or use flares, then try to get visual on the flight deck.
Everybody must have been unconscious
If you fly above 10,000ft this is a risk, obviously getting worse the higher you go. On a jet like this, it has it's cabin pressurization system, and that can fail in multiple different ways. The seals have been known to fail in prior flights on this type.
That's where I almost prefer smaller planes with no pressurization, if you want to get up to the flight levels, you just bring your own oxygen tank and keep it running constantly during the flight. No seals and no automatic pressurization to worry about.
There absolutely is a warning, from multiple independent systems, even. That presumes the failure is gradual enough that the warning provides useful time to descend. A catastrophic failure of a part could rapidly depressurize the cabin, and at 30,000ft that does not provide you with much more 30 seconds to correctly react.
Even on a rapid decompression scenario, 30 secs is plenty of time to don the mask, disengage auto pilot, pitch nose downs, throttles idle and extend the speed brakes…even then, the pressurization should have been checked with the after takeoff checklist, climb check cruise check and descent check.
Let’s just say they had a rapid decompression and the pilot wasn’t able to correctly react, why did the auto pilot turn the plane around on its own directly over DC airspace instead of continuing on its path at its last altitude until running out of fuel?
I think there's a more nefarious scenario at work in this case, but having admitted that...I nonetheless appreciate you sharing your obvious knowledge of aircraft systems. I learned a few things here!
Twenty years ago, in the Payne Stewart crash, the pilots didn't turn on the cabin air after takeoff. They didn't it out before hypoxia incapacitated everyone on board. The cabin air was sometimes left off until it was needed because it heated up the cabin when sitting on the ground.
If it was on guard, it is monitored 100 percent of the time by atc. I and many other pills listen to guard as well. Very little chance if any this was the reason for no communication.
If this flight pattern is accurate in the post, then this is a confusing flight. He didn't turn around, he vectored straight for DC. Actually turning around I can understand for lots of reasons, but this turn is odd and seems very deliberately made to arrive at a particular destination. This is honestly the most interesting part to me.
It may have been on guard frequency, but you can't be sure anyone is actually listening there. I would assume ATC would be trying to raise the plane from multiple centers on multiple known frequencies and likely last used frequencies.
Once escort gets there, there's not much more to try than guard some more, rock the wings and/or use flares, then try to get visual on the flight deck.
If you fly above 10,000ft this is a risk, obviously getting worse the higher you go. On a jet like this, it has it's cabin pressurization system, and that can fail in multiple different ways. The seals have been known to fail in prior flights on this type.
That's where I almost prefer smaller planes with no pressurization, if you want to get up to the flight levels, you just bring your own oxygen tank and keep it running constantly during the flight. No seals and no automatic pressurization to worry about.
I'm guessing that a Cessna 560 Citation V, a 2 million dollar plane would have redundant systems to alert everybody if cabin pressure is dropping.
There absolutely is a warning, from multiple independent systems, even. That presumes the failure is gradual enough that the warning provides useful time to descend. A catastrophic failure of a part could rapidly depressurize the cabin, and at 30,000ft that does not provide you with much more 30 seconds to correctly react.
Even on a rapid decompression scenario, 30 secs is plenty of time to don the mask, disengage auto pilot, pitch nose downs, throttles idle and extend the speed brakes…even then, the pressurization should have been checked with the after takeoff checklist, climb check cruise check and descent check.
Let’s just say they had a rapid decompression and the pilot wasn’t able to correctly react, why did the auto pilot turn the plane around on its own directly over DC airspace instead of continuing on its path at its last altitude until running out of fuel?
I think there's a more nefarious scenario at work in this case, but having admitted that...I nonetheless appreciate you sharing your obvious knowledge of aircraft systems. I learned a few things here!
Twenty years ago, in the Payne Stewart crash, the pilots didn't turn on the cabin air after takeoff. They didn't it out before hypoxia incapacitated everyone on board. The cabin air was sometimes left off until it was needed because it heated up the cabin when sitting on the ground.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PVWBaFFtDmY
If it was on guard, it is monitored 100 percent of the time by atc. I and many other pills listen to guard as well. Very little chance if any this was the reason for no communication.