Another Theory

Well, these days we have witnessed the partial Restoration of the Glorious Soviet Union, the bloodiest regime the world has ever known. Perfect. There were too many people anyways. /sarcasm

If I were a Boeing engineer tasked with putting heavy lifters in service in the Third World, I would likely fret a bit. Someday, one of those things would get hijacked by some nutbar, or some pilot could just go postal. How would I stop that using lessons learned the Hard Way from 911 and the like?

Time for a "Meeting." It seems the first thing the nuts always do is turn off the transponder. The people will all get killed anyways. Have to stop them from using it as a weapon. Couldn't you just booby trap the thing so if it were ever turned off, it would release gas into the cockpit, then spring the door? Nahh... Scrub the door latch. At least they won't be using that thing as a missile. Besides, the Sky Marshall will have the keys, then He can be The Hero.

What, they don't have sky marshalls in that part of the sky? Sucks to be them Skippy. Just WTF did they turn off the Transponder? What was their intent? Sounds like the kind of thing Management would come up with in a brainstorming session. Of course they would keep it secret.

I would likely just set it up so that it would automatically transpond the code for hijack when turned off. Likewise send an ACARS dump as a freebie. You could otherwise make it transpond "DOUCHE IN CONTROL." It would arm the Marketing Gasser so Marketing would be in control on their iPhones an' iPads. What EVAH!

Management would likely over ride this wisdom to show how much smarter they were than the engineers, and why they deserved more money. After all, they're gonna need to buy another plane that way if they just screw the transponder turner offer. That is why they make Marketing the managers. Jettison the flight recorders too. The bottom line on top according to Dilbert. That's Bidness!

As such, it could be highly likely. And the market marches on.