Which is why I said in my initial post on this thread that I think this was some sort of purposeful test.
ML/NJ
“I think this was some sort of purposeful test.”
You mean, on the part of the crew? Or perhaps, an act by the crew at the behest of some governmental agency (good guys)? I’m not terribly sure what entity would benefit by this.
I do not doubt for a moment re. your beliefs. It has gone well beyond that by now though. Were it an act of commission (on the part of a governmental authority), someone would have already thrown the chocks under this one.
Occam’s Razor may be the best method of solving the mystery. If there are multiple possibilities, simply pick the simplest. Unfortunately, I cannot believe the story that is being told by the crew (call me a cynic). It stinks on ice. If they were actually asleep, they would have much better off to just tell the truth. Coming up with a cock and bull story that no airline pilot would believe simply reduces them from careless, to careless liars.
I would like to give your suspicion its due, but I’m still conflicted. I cannot imagine what such a test would prove. There would be no benefit to anyone that I can think of, and the good guys could just file a flight plan and run a military ‘37 down the route if they were testing response times, etc. It is not unusual to do such a thing. A YF-71 was used rather early on to test the response times of the interceptor folks in Las Vegas. The pilots were never told what they were chasing, but the “object” moved away at such a clip there was all sorts of conjecture as to what the target was (UFO). The interceptor driver didn’t figure it out till 20+ years later when doing some research, so the possibility of a test is not out of the realm of possibility. There are just easier ways to do it than using civilians.
The simple explanation is that they fell asleep, but they would have to be very sound sleepers indeed to miss the caterwalling from a slighted and enraged A320 (They literally spew data. The A320 is not like a real airplane. It screams like a girl ;-) ). Suffice to say that the aircraft would have been very noisy, rather early on. They were not using their laptops, unless they were employing them as pillows.
I’m not the best to use as a source, as I never slept in my career while occupying the left or right seat (This is true, as I was always too terrified!). This anomoly made it difficult to snooze while I was deadheading as well. I just cannot imagine sleeping through all of noise that such an aeronautical transgression would have generated, yet the sleeping bit is all I can come up with. Even that is difficult to fathom. Weird all around.