Maybe he was locked out of the cabin? That’s been my personal theory—co-pilot goes out to the bathroom, or to chat with the stewardesses, and the pilot locks him out and hijacks the plane.
They have keys.
That’s the most reasonable theory —
That was my thought as well.
Nope, it is just the result of the selective smoke and fire that instantly killed the pilot and co-pilot while gradually corrupting the electronics in his cell phone which caused it to make a “butt” call. That is the same smoke and fire that gradually corrupted the on board flight controller, causing it to make course and altitude changes.
Or he killed the pilot.
BINGO! But,we’ll check in with General McInerney.
That's been my theory, too. This news bolsters it. The co-pilot early-on figured out the captain had wigged out. Then he turned his phone on hoping to put out the mayday, but it didn't get near enough to a tower to check in until the airplane passed back over the Malay Peninsula.
Did the captain depressurize the cabin? If so, maybe the copilot and the rest of them were knocked out by the time the phone obtained service.
And what of the captain? Why did the airplane make several more turns before finally heading south? Did some further malfunction incapacitate the captain later, while the plane was flying south, perhaps to avoid Indian radar on the way over to jihad-land?