Amid heavy speculation as to what actually happened to the Boeing 777, the “zombie theory” had reared it’s ugly head as one of the fore-runners yet again.

Recent statements made by Australian investigators suggest that the plane flew on at normal cruising altitude and speed, guided and managed by autopilot, until the plane ran out of fuel. They suggest that this would have been due to the crew and passengers being incapacitated in some way.

The best guess as to what might cause such incapacitation is a slow decompression leak which would gradually leech oxygen from the air and cause hypoxia in all those on board. While this is certainly possible, no incidences of such a malfunction have previously been reported on the 777 so it does seem unlikely – even if possible.

There are two big things which are problematic and lead to more questions than answers: firstly, the automatic communications between the aircraft and the ground were disabled – this could only have been done by a VERY specific fire of sorts or a VERY skilled person with very deep knowledge of the inner workings of the technology (most likely and most mysterious).

Secondly, this theory does not explain why there was such a sudden deviation from the normal flight path or why and how the autopilot was switched on.

While investigators are fairly confident about the zombie theory being the most plausible at this stage, they are emphasising that until physical evidence is found, nothing is for certain and all theories remain just that.

With a new search area pinned down based on the latest theory, we can only hope that something concrete will soon appear.

Check out The Daily Beast for more details on this and other theories.