The 360 maneuver shows a pilot or the pilots made an attempt to exit the flight lane to recover the aircraft without jeopardizing other flights. I suspect no pilot involvement in the tragedy, if indeed it was terrorism.
There would be no way to know if all on board perished. Perhaps one of the pilots was involved and not the other and he was doing as you suggest.
“The 360 maneuver shows a pilot or the pilots made an attempt to exit the flight lane to recover the aircraft without jeopardizing other flights.”
No necessarily. Airbus is total fly-by-wire and a fire that burns lines that are associated with the flight controls, the jet may have been making un-commanded turns and such.
Separation at same altitude and hemispheric heading is based on time. A change in altitude is where the danger resides.
When you think your airlane is on fire, you do not think about anything other than how to put the fire out and how to control the aircraft.
The number one rule in aviation is expressed in three sentences.
Aviate
Navigate
Communicate.
For those who don’t get it:
Aviate....fly the airplane first and above all else. Keep it upright and in one piece.
Navigate.....don’t run into any mountains and the ground while distracted by your problem.
Communicate is last because the first two will probably consume your time for quite a while.
The MAYDAY MAYDAY thing is the stuff of movies. Those of us who have flown a lot of hours are amazed at how calm crew members driving big iron sound in declaring an emergency.
That crew was concentrating full time on trying to get the aircraft under control.