The author's credentials are impressive, but it's not a very good debunking, IMO. The whole point of the original article was that an electrical fire could have happened that disabled a large amount of the electrical transponders or navigation system.<p>This author argues that, given this scenario, the pilots would use the interface "with a button press" to know where the nearest airports are; that they would have radioed ATC; that they would have used autopilot! Yet the whole premise of the initial theory was that much of the electronic systems were in failure mode.<p>He then handwaves detailed discussion of that aspect away: "Even with a large majority of the aircraft's electrical system depowered certain key components would still operate on battery backup, and I venture to guess that includes at least one radio."<p>I think the important thing to discuss in these speculations is not what the pilots did or didn't do with perfect knowledge and ability, but what they thought they were doing with the limited knowledge they had available to them.