what, like he somehow smuggled a parachute onboard and then survived a late-night ditch into the middle of the ocean?

Might be wrong, but I had heard it was possible to enter a pre planed flight path. Plane did a turn back over land before heading out to sea.

All air carrier flights are flown from shortly after takeoff to some point in the approach phase on a clearance that is entered in the flight management computer during pre-flight. Until the initial unplanned left turn the flight was likely flying in this manner. The turn itself could not have been executed on autopilot though. It was far too steep. The autopilot flight envelope protections would have limited the bank angle at that altitude. As it is, the plane was likely riding a fine line on the edge of a high altitude stall/spin scenario in order to execute that tight maneuver.

Might be wrong, but the left turn I believe you’re referring to happened when the plane left its planned flight path, at which point it descended to 23,000 feet and flew over land.

More like he asphyxiated everyone on the plane, including the rich heiress with her priceless jewelry and millions in cash, flew over a known location where he had previously towed a get-away boat, stole all of the other valuables on the plane, and skydived into the perfect crime.

Maybe he was related to D.B. Cooper?

So, basically Airport '77?

I don't think you can open the door on a 777 in flight.

For comparison the plane that D B Cooper used had a stairway in the back(sometimes called airstairs). He was able to override the in flight lock and get out that way. My understanding is that the db cooper incident is in a large part why they don't put airstairs on planes any more.

But now you have me watching videos on 777 doors. they open outward than forwards, like most airline doors they probably have a interlock to prevent them from opening in flight, if you could override that, I don't think you could push them forwards against the slipstream.

>incident is in a large part why they don't put airstairs on planes any more.

They don't do it because it's completely inefficient to carry this weight and waste this space from economic point of view. It's way better to carry few more paying passengers instead.

They still carry things like this on private jets, i.e. Golfstream.

An airstair is literally just any built-in stairway on an aircraft—it doesn't have to be at the back. They continue to exist as options on the 737 and A320 families to this day, and are disproportionately specified by low-cost carriers (Ryanair have a lot of their 737s with them, for example), as although they're a weight penalty they decrease ground equipment required to service the aircraft (reducing costs), and can be deployed almost as quickly as the door can be opened helping reducing turnaround times (increasing sectors flown per day).

For those who don't know (I didn't), D. B. Cooper is a 1971 hijacker who skydived out the back of a 727 with a $200,000 ransom and was never found.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D._B._Cooper

Very fascinating read. Thanks.

My understanding is the emergency doors pull inward and once cabin is depressurized, they are possible to remove; very possible that’s wrong though.