Originally Posted by SEA_Tigger
Since the cockpit door on any commercial airliner - including the 737 series - is not an airlock, when the cockpit lost oxygen and/or pressure, so did the main cabin. So everyone on the plane was incapacitated or deceased and nobody could have done anything even if the cockpit was wide open and every passenger was a trained and certified 737 pilot.
Not necessarily -- the pilot emergency oxygen system is completely separate from the passenger overhead mask system. Also, there are portable oxygen cylinders for the crew stored in the galleys.
Originally Posted by SEA_Tigger
This is probably a similar problem to what happened to golfer Payne Stewart's private jet. The problem was so gradual that the passengers and crew never knew what happened to them until they were incapacitated.
There is a cabin pressure alarm on the 737. If it was working properly, then it would have sounded when the effective cabin altitude went above 10,000 feet, no matter how slowly or how rapidly the depressurization happened.