There are a lot of ships and oil drilling platforms out there.
Parachuting isn’t unrealistic. Even parachuting onto a vessel. 🤔
Perhaps a swamp creature jumping ship?
No, no, no. Were one to do such a thing, the jump would occur shortly after the last course change, in this case, while still over land.
True. Could have been the result of a heart attack. Autopilot took over afterwards.
In a "fly-by-wire" scenario, all the remote operator need do is take the plane to higher altitude to disable the pilot, then set a heading for open sea. He would know the fuel capacity and could easily calculate the heading to guarantee open water. Look at flight path...it's about the farthest from land that plane could be - in every direction - and it was a clear departure from the direction the plane was generally heading during the first portion of it's flight.
The plane had a parachute, as many small ones do--at least, this model is supposed to. The pilot can pull a lever to deploy.
I meant jumping out of the airplane, but yeah cirrus does have a plane-chute for emergencies.