At this point the data from his computer, at least the data from the flight simulator software, should be released publicly so that those with experience can apply their knowledge to reconstructing the data. It's entirely possible that someone with more knowledge of the software in question, rather than a generic computer expert, might have more luck.
Agreed. Whenever I return to this story I’m always astounded at rereading that part of the story (even though I know it’s coming). I’m also surprised it isn’t given more weighting.
Surely it’s the biggest reddest flag in all the evidence and underemphasised purely because of the political implications of a murderous pilot.
The main question about it in my mind is one for aviation experts … why would any pilot plot and practice that course? Is there any possible motivation other than wanting to crash a plane in the middle of nowhere?
Because if not, it’s almost a closed, albeit morbid and troubling case and the rest would be details.
It also raises interesting questions about the importance of pilot mental health that are maybe uncomfortable for the industry, in addition to the fact that aviation tech could still completely lose a plane.
What about the data would require an expert to reconstruct? They have the simulated flight path. It's very similar to the final flight path of the real plane.
From the report it was recovered from backup files at the system level, it wasn't as simple as a save game file or whatever. It's possible there's more data there or that what's there has different interpretations - we can only speculate at this point based on the very limited information that's been released.
