[Political Junkie Too]

So planes have auto pilots that return them to destination point AND land? What if there isn’t enough fuel to get back to destination point?

I don't know, which is what I said in my first post.

It does look odd, though. It could have made an instrument approach that it was preprogrammed to do, and then just kept traveling in a straight line from there, again coincidentally flying over DC. I can't imagine that an explosive decompression would happen at approach altitudes, so something must have happened long before then and the autopilot turned the plane but kept it level.

But it's all just speculation on my part.

Regarding running out of fuel, that's what happened to Payne Stewart. A fighter jet followed the plane until it ran out of fuel and then crashed back to the ground.

-PJ

[9422WMR]

Well they could have been in a Cirrus SR22.
When you get tired of flying you just deploy the parachute and it lands you gently back on the ground.