Airliner with 121 on board crashes in Greece

[wannabepilot777]

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/8944885/

BREAKING NEWS
MSNBC News Services
Updated: 5:49 a.m. ET Aug. 14, 2005

This is a developing story and details will be added as they become available.

ATHENS - A Cypriot airliner carrying 115 passengers and six crewmembers, crashed north of Athens on Sunday, the defense ministry and fire department said.

The Helios Airways flight crashed at about 12:20 p.m. near the coastal town of Kalamos, just north of the Greek capital. Witnesses told Athens radio station they saw the plane, which was being followed by fighter jets, go down.

Britain's Sky News reported the pilots had been incapacitated and seen slumped over in their seats.


I also heard a different report saying that a fighterjet flew along side and saw the pilots were in the main cabin, rather than the cockpit. They say hijacking can't be ruled out. RIP to the dead and their families. I pray for survivors.

[Alessandro]

It crashed near the town of Grammatkos, 400 meter from a nearby village.

[wannabepilot777]

Sounds like decompression of some kind or am I jumping to conclusions?

[YBBN]

Sounds like decompression of some kind or am I jumping to conclusions?

Just before the crash, air force crew observed the airline's pilots doubled up in the cabin, an air traffic controller said.

The pilots of the two F-16 fighters jets that were sent up to escort the airliner before the crash "saw a situation that was not normal in the pilots' cabin", Mr Kalpoyannakis said.

Source


I would say that you are jumping to conclusions.

[Alessandro]

Some grim stats, last 6 crashes with +100 dead has been Boeings, 5 of them has been 737s...

[phtr88]

some say, that it could be a terrorist attack

[G-MIDY]

Maybe terrorists but terrorists can't cause decompressions unless maybe shots were fired? Something weird about this story... Read the BBC report about a text message saying We are all frozen etc.

[RobJ]

Odd, but BBC are now reporting this particular aircraft has had a history of problems with its Air Conditioning packs. Very likely cause?

[G-MIDY]

CNN are reporting all of the 121 onboard dead..

http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/europe/08/14/greece.crash/index.html

[DRS-Spotter]

Was former D-ADBQ with Deutsche BA. Photographed it back in May 2003 at DRS.
[photoid=92891]
[photoid=92890]

Georg.
________
BUY GLASS PIPES

[AA 1818]

FOX News and CNN are noe reporting that the black boxes have/are being recovered. I have also seen a man discussing the "We are freezing.." text message.

"The pilot is blue, we are freezing, so long cousin..." is how it has been translated into english, with a heavy goodbye that was not able to be translated. It was said that the passenger text messaged his cousin in Cyprus. Both countries are looking for other persons that have information.


I know that this is purely specualtion, but could it be that there was de-pressurization in the cockpit, and to avoid the cold, the pilot ran to the passenger cabin?

[phtr88]

the english wikipedia says:

Helios Airways Flight 522 (HCY 522) was a leased Helios Airways Boeing 737-31S (Registration [5B-DBY]) flight which crashed on August 14, 2005 at 12:04 local time (EEST = UTC + 3h) into a mountain in a non-populated area between Marathon and Varnavas, Greece. The flight had left Larnaca, Cyprus at 09:07 EEST, was en route to Athens, and scheduled to continue to Prague. Rescue teams have located wreckage near the town of Grammatikos. The plane veered off-course and two F-16 fighter planes from the Hellenic Air Force 116 Combat Wing were launched from Araxos, Greece. They noted that the plane appeared to be on autopilot, that both pilots were unconscious and that one was wearing an oxygen mask. Unconfirmed reports on Greek television say that the pilot collapsed and that there was a problem with the pressurization system and oxygen supply on board, which released toxic substances in the air. Same reports indicate that this specific aircraft has had similar problems in the past with air supply system, but they had allegedly been fixed. According to the Greek government, the passengers included 59 adults and 8 children who were disembarking at Athens for a vacation, along with 46 adults and two children who were headed to Prague. Just before the crash, one of the passengers sent an SMS to his cousin saying "The pilot has turned blue in his face. Farewell cousin, we are freezing."

Suspicions that the plane had been hijacked were swiftly ruled out by Greece's foreign ministry.

The preliminary report of 121 persons onboard the crashed jet would make this accident 2005's most fatal, and only the second accident that caused more than 100 fatalities. The other was Kam Air Flight 904 with 104 deaths. It is the 69th crash of a Boeing 737 since it was brought into service in 1968.


Timeline
09:00 Scheduled departure time.
09:07 Airplane takes off from Larnaka airport.
10:30 Flight fails to establish contact with the Eleftherios Venizelos Airport
10:37 Last contact with Larnaka airport reporting problem.
10:45 Scheduled arrival time in Athens.
10:55 The Hellenic Armed Forces Joint Chief of Staff, Admiral Panagiotis Chinofotis orders military planes to establish visual contact with the aircraft.
11:05 Two F-16 fighter planes take off from Araxos, Greece.
11:18 Fighter pilots see co-pilot unconcious on the aircraft's instrument panel.
11:20 Fighter jets establish visual contact.
11:40-11:50 Aircraft flies a triangular distress pattern.
12:04 Aircaft crashes near Grammatikos, having run out of fuel.
13:10 Scheduled arrival time in Prague.

[Tanner_J]

I'll never understand; how when one accident happens (In this case AF at YYZ) that two or three follow.

[DAL767-400ER]

I'll never understand; how when one accident happens (In this case AF at YYZ) that two or three follow.

Me neither. I can't really be understood. It's one of those things that happen, but for which no one has a real explantation.

[B757300]

Some grim stats, last 6 crashes with +100 dead has been Boeings, 5 of them has been 737s...

And your point?