I was asked on another thread what I thought happened to the passengers when I mentioned that no one seems to be looking into the possibility that something of value in the cargo hold might be the root cause of all of this. I was gently nudged away from thread creep, so I am posting my thoughts here. I think there are many possibilities with that scenario, but here are two:
1. If the media reports that the airplane climbed to 45,000 feet, maybe a pilot intentionally depressurized and murdered everyone on board in short order. Sure, the masks would have dropped, but that supply is only partial oxygen and the oxygen generators only work for about ten minutes. If the airplane remained at 45,000, that supplemental oxygen in the cabin would have been useless anyway, since the partial pressure of the oxygen would not have been enough to move it into anyone's bloodstream. The pilot would be using pressurized oxygen and would have maintained full consciousness throughout the entire scenario.
The cabin drop-down masks are intended to keep pax alive while the pilots make an emergency rapid descent to an alittude where people can breath unassisted. If that emergency descent is not accomplished and the airplane remains at altitude, everyone suffocates and dies.
2. Perhaps the pilot just takes everyone on a "joy ride" to a remote jungle airstrip of sufficient length (3,000 feet?...I wonder how quickly he could stop a 777 with practice on his home simulator?) to get the airplane stopped. There, they are met by "friendly," yet criminal, factions who were expecting the arrival of their treasure, neatly stored in the cargo hold. The passengers are left to fend for themselves. (I hope this is what happened...people are very resilient and would likely all survive such a scenario for the several weeks it may take to locate them, or for them to locate civilization.)