[TalonDJ]

And if you manually (per a flow like that posted earlier) dial in a lower altitude and then pass out... the plane simply goes down to that altitude and then levels off. It does not auger in. Eventually you wake up and resume flying the plane.

[Tzfat]

And if you manually (per a flow like that posted earlier) dial in a lower altitude and then pass out... the plane simply goes down to that altitude and then levels off. It does not auger in. Eventually you wake up and resume flying the plane.

Correct. The emergency descent procedure is initiated by the left seat pilot. It is normally done with a flow (rather than a checklist). The
first step is always to put on an oxygen mask (hence no hypoxia), then dial in 10,000 in altitude (or higher for terrain), then pull the Open Descent button) etc.

The Germanwings hit at what looks like well below 10,000 - which means even if the crew had consciousness to start an emergency descent - then it would not have descended into the terrain. The only way this is hypoxia is if it had run out of fuel at altitude over the North Sea. That is what happened to the Helos B737 event several years ago. They never did a descent.