[old curmudgeon]

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.

[ROCKLOBSTER]

That crew was concentrating full time on trying to get the aircraft under control.

Well, either that, or deliberately crashing it.

[Hulka]

“The MAYDAY MAYDAY thing is the stuff of movies. “

Indeed. All ATC can do for you is send a post-card to your wife. . .does just as much good.

“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.”

Lot of hours. . .how many and type? I’ve had my share of IFE’s in the A-10 and the F-15E, no biggee, that is why we practice and know the systems. Besides, gotta sound calm on the radios because you want your last worlds to sound cool, not panicky like a little girl.

[CivilWarBrewing]

If I had to wager on this one, I would bet that two of the cockpit windows were blown out because of a bomb, hence the alerts before the aircraft went down. The cabin briefly filled with smoke BUT MOSTLY FOG due to rapid depressurization and visibility for the surviving pilot was next to ZERO.

Lack of claim of responsibility could be due to this being a 'lone wolf' bomb maker* OR there's more aircraft take-downs afoot. *

SUICIDE BOMBER IN THE BATHROOM?