I think generally accepted now one/both pilots were flying the plane (potentially under duress) given the sequence of events wrt course changes, transponder and satcom shutdowns, altitude changes.
Passengers may have been blissfully unaware until dawn even in a hijack situation given security in cockpit may have been lax.
If fuel **specifics** are not sufficient for a flight to the horn of Africa, I suspect a search to the west of the Maldives would be more fruitful bearing in mind, if a pilot suicide attempt, this likely would only happen when cabin becomes fully aware of the situation: ie after dawn.
