[pepsionice]

Masks are supposed to drop. But realistically...if you have a massive loss of pressure...you have barely 1 gulp of air to conclude that this requires the mask and to grab it. If you fail on that first gulp of air...you probably won't get a second gulp...and you will get just enough air to survive...but thats about it. And if you count in the temperature situation...you probably are freezing by the end of 20 seconds. A guy in great shape, might be able to eventually grab enough air and get the mask on...and perhaps move forward through the cabinet although you are talking about 10 minutes to walk 10 steps.

[Bear_in_RoseBear]

According to the speculation in the article, several minutes passed from the time of the first alarm until the pilot passed out. I'm guessing "failure to pressurize" means that the cabin/cockpit, rather than suffering a sudden de-pressurization, gradually lost pressure as the plane rose in altitude, equalizing with the outside air pressure. That is, the plane interior never pressurized in the first place.

My point in raising the question about masks is this: a mask dropping from the ceiling would be a lot more difficult for a pilot to ignore than a warning light would be. And, if the link Textide provides is accurate and the masks *don't* drop automatically in the cockpit, then that might be a feature that Boeing would want to add in future versions of their planes.