"after it lost cabin pressure and took a major nosedive Tuesday afternoon." 
Note to readers: "major nosedive" would be a non-technical term used by stupid reporters who don't understand why "major nosedive" took place.
To be accurate, when we have a loss of cabin pressure we perform an emergency descent maneuver which involves pulling the power to idle, deploying the speedbrakes, and lowering the nose in an attempt to reach an altitude of 10,000 feet in the quickest, SAFEST manner possible. It's pretty controlled, and provides you the fastest way to get down to thick, breathable air.
We do one a year in the sim......fairly straightforward maneuver. (In the military, we'd roll the plane over on it's back, deploy the speedbrakes, pull the power to idle, and perform a 5 G pull......which could of course be described as a "major nosedive"....)
I would submit that when you have a cabin depressurization event, reaching 10,000 feet in pronto fashion is in your best interest, and experiencing a "major nosedive" would be an option you'd sign up for.
DRW
