Sightseeing in Yemen, perhaps?
Either a Muslim sympathizer, got jilted by a “lover” boy or girl, or is really big debt.
Maybe he passed out? Heart attack?
So he worked for the airline for 18 months and accrued only 630 flight hours? Maybe I’m wrong but that doesn’t seem like much flying time. That’s less than 10 hours a week. I realize that pilots have workload restrictions but still that doesn’t sound like a lot of cockpit time. Maybe he was a problem employee.
Does anybody know if a flight manifest with names of the German citizens has been released?
Even if he was suicidal, it’s hard to see why he would want to take 150 people with him, unless he was either a terrorist or had severe mental problems. And it’s hard to see how someone who had severe mental problems—not just small ones he could keep hidden—would be allowed to become a pilot.
I read one report that said they have determined that he set the autopilot to 100 feet (it’s lowest setting). If that is indeed true, there is no way this was an accident. Also, I doubt it’s terrorism for two reasons. The first is he has a non islamic name. My understanding of the conversion to Islam is that you have to take an Islamic name. The other reason is that if it was terrorism, the whole point of terrorism is to let people know you are committing atrocities in the name of your cause. In other words, on the voice recorder he would have been yelling ‘Allah Akbar’ or some group would have come out and taken credit for it.
This is indeed a very strange story.
DRUDGE article citing depression is a timeline report with additional info inserts, by The Guardian, I think, is the source, or UK paper.
It quotes a mom of a friend and a tweet by another friend who say he was depressed, the tweet says he took SIX MONTHS off in 2009, from flight training because he was depressed.
There is talk that naturally airlines are very on edge about depression and pilots may not fly when they report it or are under treatment for it, therefore, pilots are reluctant to report it, or maybe deal with treating it.
The more I study this incident, THE LESS I’M BUYIN’ IT.
It's a long shot, I know, but if I turn out to be right, the payoff will be astounding.