Hey it's as good as any theory I've heard yet.
A “plot” to do this? Heh - solar power from space was one of the popular plans used in high school debate in 1979-80. Frankly, I wish we’d have done it then.
Here’s my crazy hypothesis. The pane has been landed, the hostages housed. It’s being reprinted to resemble an Alitalia aircraft. It will be refueled and loaded with explosives, conventional or possibly nuclear.
The hostages will be returned to the pane and it will head for Italy through compliant middle eastern states until it is over the Mediterranean. It’s target? The Vatican. Such targets as the Vatican library, priceless renaissance art and the church hierarchy would amount to a cultural groin kick to western civilization .
Hey, I told you it was crazy.
Turns out these theories are like excrement exit points. Everybody’s got a couple.
If the cause was a pilot that was suicidal than either this was a spur of the moment act or preplanned. In a spur of the moment scenario he pulls a flight 800 and goes right in and we would know about it. In a planned scenario he either goes out in a blaze of glory or dies quietly. Since he did not crash the plane in a spectacular manner that leave picking a location as far away as possible over the deepest part of the ocean to lesson the chance of being found and ditching the plane. Considering the range of the aircraft and last satellite position I would guess he put it in the Diamentina Trench, or better yet the Diamentina Deep. At its great depth the pinger would almost be impossible to pick up before its battery dies.