According to the article, it’s assumed he, along with the passengers, were dead. The plane supposedly stayed at 43,000 ft for 23 minutes. If the cabin was depressurized, the oxygen would only last so long before the passengers died. The plane could keep on flying on autopilot until it ran out of gas.
Here’s the question I have about that:
After the first hairpin turn off course, what direction was the pane headed?
Because that wasn’t, I don’t think the same, direction as it eventually went.