I read through the entire pilots' forum (all three threads) by late yesterday/very early this A.M. and it is nearly impossible to paraphrase all the information contained there, to suggest some conclusion elsewhere, other than people should go read that forum, beginning with Thread 1, and be prepared to devote a great deal of time and concentration to it to understand what likely occured.

However, I am still confused as to how some survived right up until the ending catastrophic crash (the couple in the pilots' cabin, specifically) while others "froze." What some pilots on that forum seem to be concluding is that there was a gradual decompression that affected mental and motor functions, and that the oxygen supply available to the passengers was limited to the 10/20 minute supply that is normal for commercial aircraft...

And, if that occured as it seems to have done, within the first thirty five minutes of flight, then the passengers would be sitting there with masks on (some were found wearing them after the crash) but either unconscious, already expired and some frozen due to cabin depressurization afterward.

That some survived is possible, given that the pilots had/have access to an extended amount of oxygen and some might have survived the extreme temperatures, yes, indicating that the decompression occured more closely to the crash than earlier (however, that does not account for the freezing of some passengers, who would have had to have been exposed for a longer period of time than even an hour inorder to become "frozen" as some are reported to have been).

Also, the training involved with pilots is to take a plane to a lower altitude immediately after a decompression and because the plane was left on autopilot at it's approx. 30,000 feet for so long indicates that the pilot/s became incapacitated immediately, as in a few seconds, and early on in flight, which again would be due to hypoxia (lack of oxygen) -- and that the plane was then many hours later engaged in it's slow righthand turning circling toward a lower altitude was due to it being 'stuck' in autopilot and hovering over it's intended destination...and thus doing what autopilot would require, circling and descending slowly over that point until disengaged (but no one did, thus it continued to circle as it did over it's intended landing point).

Looks to be a combination of terrible events, no doubt. That the couple was in the cabin toward the end means they either had access problems to the cabin (couldn't get in for a while) or that they were there struggling for longer than it makes too much sense but that also could have been due to the effects upon mental and motor skills by lack of oxygen and extreme cold.

Some are speculating that the plane was shot down at the end...we'll never know unless it's reported as such, but it's likely to have crashed as it did due to final use of all available fuel at the eventual lower altitude, also.

All told, a terrible tragedy. Truly sad, terrible.

It's a fascinating mystery, isn't it S? I'm loving that pilots' forum.
They're talking more and more about toxic gas.

I don't know if anybody was actually "froze". Maybe cold and in rigor like that one guy theorized?

Sorry, late to follow-up/respond...been busy (d'oh)...anyway, rigor does not set in until someone is deceased about six hours, sometimes later (time frame is 6 to 10 hours after death that full rigor is in effect, or, rather, beginning to the full rigor).

They were only in the air from about 9 a.m. until the crash before noon so even if people expired (as it looks) mostly from some cause at 9:30 (and then perished in the next half hour or so, by or at around 10 a.m.), there was not nearly enough time for anyone to be in rigor by the time the flight crashed.

Maybe by the time "rescuers" REACHED the perished, crashed bodies they found rigor present but that'd be because the deceased lay there for another four/five hours (or more) before they were located.

And, yes, the forum is fascinating.