[PreciousLiberty]

“SO they ignited, turned off the transponders, killed the crew and passenger?

And then the burning plane flew for 7 hours?”

Perfect analysis, and just about what I was going to post. If the plane flew for many hours after diving below radar, that points to exactly one thing - a stolen plane. I’m mainly curious about what happened to the passengers at this point.

[CivilWarBrewing]

The only scenario where fire makes sense is if fire suppression systems extinguished the flames but the passengers and crew were overcome by the residual toxic (cyanide?) fumes and smoke. Perhaps the climb to 45k feet was done in an attempt to deprive the perceived fire of oxygen. It is conceivable that a fire could cut certain on board systems, but highly unlikely that would be responsible for everything that happened.

Under this scenario, change of course and ascending to high altitude makes sense. After that, the craft became a ghost flight with all aboard dead.

There's about a 10% chance it happened this way.