[zipper]

Yes, but not likely by hypoxia. All crew hypoxia accidents result in fuel starvation. This aircraft would have flown to the North Sea before crashing.

Hypoxia is extremely rare in commercial aircraft with two pilots. O2 masks are the first thing we do in any situation involving pressurization or smoke. We never would initiate a descent prior to putting on O2 masks.

I said incapacitation, of which hypoxia is one possibility, or a contributing factor.

A rapid depressurization would put the crew to a test, of which they only have seconds to pass. There are no guarantees they will pass, especially if there are other factors in play (one is not in the cockpit, structural damage, insidious onset of symptoms, to name a few).

[Tzfat]

A rapid depressurization would put the crew to a test, of which they only have seconds to pass.

True, but one that pilots have trained for since the dawn of the jet age. Aviation physiology is something we pilots are extremely well-versed in. Our O2 masks are inches from our heads, and we can don them in a less than a second in one motion. They are automatically pressurized the moment the handle is pulled and they wrap around our heads like an octopus automatically. We use them a lot.

Smoke, maybe. Structural failure (dead pilots), maybe. Hypoxia, unlikely.