[B4Ranch]

>>The hijacker pilot can fly the plane manually, but not by autopilot and not using GPS. He would only have a backup compass to steer by. Everything on a screen can be darkened by the pilot/engineer in the service bay. One plug at a time, the hijacker’s job becomes more and more difficult.<<

I don’t think it is possible to fly a 777 in the dark of night with a dead panel.

If you can't see the panel, I don't think it is possible to feel fly a heavy aircraft.

[Travis McGee]

If the plane is never found, and the BB is never recovered, we may never know. But I’m guessing that there was an epic battle between the lone jihad pilot, and everybody else on the plane. Move and counter-move, between the lone pilot, and the engineer and/or others as they unplugged systems to hobble the hijacker. Eventually, the plane became unflyable either due to a progression of systems cutoffs, or fuel starvation.

That is my best guess, no better than yours.

Maybe someday that proverbial “message in the bottle” from a passenger will wash up and solve some of the mysteries.

[CodeToad]

Backup systems have backup lighting. It wouldn’t be a dark, so a “dead panel” does not mean unlit backup instruments.

[CFIIIMEIATP737]

What about the Ram Air Turbine that supplies essential avionics? What about the flashlights that are required to be in the cockpit?

[CFIIIMEIATP737]

I never said “feel fly”. You look out the window at the horizon. You maintain pitch based on that view.