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That was not terribly informative. It failed to usefully address at least two obvious questions:

1. How dangerous is rapid decompression at 40k ft? Would it kill or incapacitate people?

2. Is there any mechanism in the plane to automatically descend to a safe altitude in the event that cabin pressure is lost and the crew is incapacitated? (What is a safe altitude, anyway? 10k feet is breathable, but mountains taller than that are not especially unusual.)

Cockpit crew have rapidly deployable oxygen masks in their headrests (edit: or otherwise near), and train to don them very quickly.

Good vid of how quickly they can access and wear: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mgLSTimJ868

The plane won't descend on its own unless it's part of the regular flightplan and it's on autopilot.

The physicist quoted does not appear to make the claim given in the headline.

Piece of rag article that doesn't explain anything useful.