I’m curious to know if a pilot can do anything which would cause the passenger cabin to lose oxygen. Doing that would prevent the passengers from trying to re-take the jet.
There have been reports that the plane climbed to 45,000 feet. According to other posts on previous threads at this altitude the loss of air from the main cabin would put everyone to sleep in about 8 minutes. They would be dead from lack of O2 in about 15-20 minutes. Problem solved.
Pitching the nose up rapidly can make it extremely difficult for passengers to get to cabin. Taking it to 45,000 ft. for only a few minutes can kill the passengers from depressurization.