Plane takes off and flies for an hour. Pilot then shuts off the communications and turns to the West and flies up to 40-45000ft. This will kill everyone not in the cockpit. Plane comes back down to a lower elevation to regain control etc. Goes back up to 29,000 ft and avoids radar as much as possible while heading to the Indian Ocean.
Pilot then flies to a pre-determined spot in the Indian ocean that is shallow but deep enough to fully submerge the airplane. Maybe 100 feet or so. The pilot ditches the airplane. There is a salvage ship standing by to rescue the pilot and help quickly sink the airplane.
The ship maneuvers over the airplane to help cover it. The first thing they do is dive down and remove the “black boxes” and destroy then. This is so no transmissions are made. This is going on while everyone is searching the South China Sea. After the black boxes are removed they dive
Down and open the cargo bins and remove what they are after. Could be gold, gems or maybe something to make a nuclear device. Heck even the so called nuclear suitcase.
That is my story and I am sticking to it.
What would be the motivation to let the captain live?