Originally Posted by
ContinentalFan
I suspect that, thanks to the Alaska incident, any issue with pressurization on an aircraft with a door plug will meet with a similar reaction.
The pressurization issues that the Alaska aircraft had prior to the plug departure were unrelated to the issue with the door plug.
The descent to 10,000' would indicate a loss of pressurization. They can not continue to crossing with a loss of pressurization prior to the equal-time-point. Once the pressurization was lost, there was no longer any possibility of containing to the mainland. The delay in turning back would have been going through the checklists and then getting the appropriate ATC clearance in the non-radar oceanic airspace.
This is all based only on the flight tracking data above. I don't have any other information on this particularly flight.