If you wanted to commit suicide from the flight deck, the altitude that this action (if deliberate) was conducted would be perfect.
If you read the report, one of the engines had actually just spoiled back up, but the crucial detail is that the altitude was so low that it couldn't recover in time. The second engine didn't even get that far.
There's a lot of disinformation, and a lot of people making opinions that know very little about flying. Even the ones that do, such as Captain Steveee, talk a lot of shit and should be taken with a pinch of salt.
I still believe the suicide angle is odd, not because it doesn't make sense, because it really does from an aviation angle. The evidence just seems off to me. No suicide letter, no other actions before, or on the flight deck. When asked, there was denial. The comparisons the Eurowings flight are fair, but everything else is just off.
The most depressing thing is that I'm not sure they'll be anything else coming out of this that will determine a solid explanation either way. Boeing will absolutely blame it on the pilot(s) as they are under a lot of pressure at the moment and those guys can't defend themselves, but something seems really amiss.
This seems like a considerably fucked up situation. Not quite MH370, but another one we'll be watching through documentaries for many years to come I think.
This flight didn’t even make it to 700 feet. The switch in question was operated less than 15 seconds after takeoff. Just doesn’t strike me as the optimum time to ensure a (for want of a better word) ‘successful’ suicide, but there we are.
There's very little time and altitude in which to react correctly to what he did. Other pilot murder-suicides have often required the pilot/first officer to be locked out of the cockpit. If Air India didn't allow only one person to occupy the cockpit, this is one of the few ways you could do it without physically attacking the other person.