Greece Plane Crash Kills 121, 48 Children

GRAMMATIKO, Greece - A Cypriot plane crashed into a hill north of Athens on Sunday, killing all 121 people aboard — a third of them children — in Greece's deadliest airline disaster. At least one of the pilots was unconscious when the plane went down, apparently from lack of oxygen.

The Helios Airways flight ZU522 was headed from Larnaca, Cyprus, to Athens International Airport when it crashed at 12:05 p.m. near the town of Grammatiko, about 25 miles north of the Greek capital, leaving flaming debris and luggage strewn across a ravine and surrounding hills.

The Boeing 737, carrying 115 passengers and six crew, was to have flown onto Prague, Czech Republic, after stopping in Athens. There were 48 children on board, most of them Greek Cypriots, Helios spokesman Giorgos Dimitriou told reporters at Athens airport.

The cause of the crash was unclear, but it looked like a technical problem — possibly decompression — and not terrorism. "The first indications, in Cyprus and in Greece, are that it was not caused by a terrorist act," said Marios Karoyian, a spokesman for Cypriot President Tassos Papadopoulos.

Family members wept in anguish as they waited at the Athens and Larnaca airports. When news of the crash emerged at Larnaca, relatives swarmed the airline counters, shouting "murderers" and "you deserve lynching." One woman, Artemis Charalambous, said she was the mother of one of the pilots.

A man whose cousin was a passenger on the plane told Greece's Alpha television he received a cell-phone text message minutes before the crash. "He told me the pilots were unconscious. ... He said: "Farewell, cousin, here we're frozen," Sotiris Voutas said.

The head of the Greek airline safety committee, Akrivos Tsolakis, described the crash as the "worst accident we've ever had." He said the plane's black boxes had been discovered at the scene, containing flight data and voice recordings valuable for determining the cause.

"There apparently was a lack of oxygen, which is usually the case when the cabin is depressurized," Tsolakis said.

The plane lost contact with Greek and Cypriot air traffic control 23 minutes after takeoff. Two F-16 fighter jets were dispatched shortly after the plane entered Greek air space over the Aegean Sea and did not respond to radio calls — a standard Greek practice.

When they intercepted the plane, the jet pilots could see the co-pilot slumped over his seat. The captain was not in the cockpit, and oxygen masks were dangling inside the cabin, government spokesman Theodoros Roussopoulos said.

He said the jet pilots also saw two people apparently trying to take control of the plane, but it was unclear if they were members of the crew or passengers.

"It looks like the plane was on automatic pilot" when it crashed, Helios spokesman Marios Konstantinidis said at Larnaca airport, in Cyprus.

The F-16 jets met the plane at 34,000 feet, a Greek air force spokesman said. At that altitude, depressurization is extremely serious because its effects happen so quickly, said David Kaminski Morrow, deputy news editor of the British-based Air Transport Intelligence magazine.

"If the aircraft is at 30,000 feet, you don't stay conscious for long, maybe 15 to 30 seconds. It is like standing on top of Mount Everest," he said. "But if you are down at 10,000 feet, you can breath for a lot longer."

Greek state television quoted Cyprus Transport Minister Haris Thrasou as saying the plane had decompression problems in the past. However, Helios representative Dimitriou said the plane had "no problems and was serviced just last week."

On Cyprus, several callers to radio and television programs devoting their broadcasts to the crash said they experienced severe air-conditioning problems when flying on similar Helios jets in recent months. Some said the cabin was freezing and the crew had to provide them with blankets, while others said it became unbearably hot.

Sudden loss of cabin pressure was blamed for a similar crash in South Dakota in October 1999. A private Learjet 35 lost pressure, leaving pro golfer Payne Stewart and four others unconscious. The twin-engine jet went down in a pasture after flying halfway across the country on autopilot.

In June 2000, a Boeing 737-200 of the Canadian carrier WestJet lost cabin pressure soon after lift off because pilots mistakenly shut down the auxiliary power, the Transportation Safety Board of Canada determined. The cabin altitude reached 24,000 feet before the plane descended and pressurization became normal. None of the 118 passengers was injured.

In the Greek crash, the only piece of the plane that remained intact was the tail section. Bits of human flesh, clothing, and luggage were scattered around the wreckage, which also started brush fires around the area.

More than 100 firefighters, aided by eight special planes and three helicopters dropping water, fought a huge brush fire caused by the crash. Parts of the remains of the plane were engulfed by the fire. The plane broke up into at least three pieces: the tail, a bit of the cockpit and a piece of the fuselage section that witnesses said contained a large group of bodies.

Fire trucks and ambulances crowded roads near the crash site. A number of black-robed Greek Orthodox Christian were also on the scene. The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board said it was sending four representatives to help investigate.

Rescue workers and residents on the scene said they had found no survivors.

"There is wreckage everywhere. I am here, things here are very difficult, they are indescribable," Grammatiko Mayor George Papageorgiou said. "I am looking at the back tail. The fuselage has been destroyed. It fell into a chasm and there are pieces. All the residents are here trying to help."

Helios Airways was founded in 1999 as Cyprus' first private airline. It operates a fleet of Boeing 737 jets to cities including London; Athens; Sofia, Bulgaria; Dublin, Ireland; and Strasbourg, France.

Greek Prime Minister Costas Caramanlis canceled a holiday on the Aegean island of Tinos to return to Athens to deal with the crash. The Cypriot president also canceled a vacation.

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[Johnny Stew]

Absolutely tragic.

Here's the latest....


Greece crash plane may already have been flying tomb
By Brian Williams
57 minutes ago

A Cypriot airliner that crashed in Greece may already have been a flying tomb when it plunged to earth with some of the 121 people aboard already either dead or unconscious, early indications suggest.

Sunday's crash, the worst air disaster in Greece and the worst involving a Cypriot airline, perplexed aviation experts astounded by what appeared to have been a catastrophic failure of cabin pressure and or oxygen supply at 35,000 feet -- nearly 10 kilometers (six miles) up, higher than Mount Everest.

There was also mystery over the last minutes of the Helios Airlines Boeing 737 flight which was declared "renegade" when it entered Greek air space and failed to make radio contact, causing two F-16 air force jets to scramble to investigate.

All 115 passengers and six crew died, most burned beyond visual recognition, when the plane, with neither pilot in control, spiraled down in a death dive into a mountainous area about 40 km north of Athens.

The plane was on a flight from Larnaca in Cyprus to Prague with a stop in Athens. An airline spokeswoman and Greek authorities denied some media reports that many of those on board were children.

Airport officials in Cyprus said flight HCY522 left Larnaca at 9 a.m. (0700 GMT) on Sunday and lost contact at 10:30 a.m.

Greek Defense Ministry officials said 90 minutes elapsed between the alert first being raised at 10:30 a.m. and the plane crashing at 12:03 p.m.

Greek government spokesman Theodore Roussopoulos said the F-16 pilots sent to investigate reported that with the pilots out of action there may have been a last-gasp effort by others on the plane to bring it back under control.

"The situation was characterized renegade, meaning the aircraft was not under the control of the pilots," Roussopoulos told reporters, explaining how the crisis unfolded after the plane failed to make radio contact.

"At a later stage, the F-16s saw two individuals in the cockpit seemingly trying to regain control of the airplane," Roussoupoulos said.

"The F-16s also saw oxygen masks down when they got close to the aircraft. The aircraft was making continuous right-hand turns to show it had lost radio contact."

A passenger on the doomed plane said in an SMS text to his cousin in Athens: "The pilot has turned blue. Cousin farewell, we're freezing."

CHARRED BODIES

Reuters photographer Yannis Behrakis reported from the crash site that dozens of bodies were still strapped into their seats, some with the remnants of oxygen masks over their faces.

"Two charred bodies were still hugging each other," he said.

The plane broke into many pieces on impact, with the two engines 500 meters away from each other, the cockpit a further 200 metros away and the tail broken off a further distance away.

Greece's defense ministry said it suspected the plane's oxygen supply or pressurization system may have malfunctioned.

Loss of cabin pressure was identified as the probable cause of two similar but smaller-scale air crashes in recent years.

Pro-golfer Payne Stewart and five others were killed when their Learjet aircraft crashed in the United States in 1999 after flying for more than four hours without radio contact.

In 2000 a plane crashed in Australia after flying for more than an hour from 25,000 feet up with no sign of life on board.

Experts told Reuters it was extremely rare for a plane to lose oxygen, and that emergency systems should have kicked in.

"The pilots should have had their masks on," a retired British pilot who did not wish to be named told Reuters. "Why they didn't put them on is the big mystery."

"A loss of pressurization in the cabin is in itself a rare event but to go as far as it incapacitates the pilot is hugely rare," the retired pilot said.

Greek media speculated a toxic gas from possible faulty air-conditioning could have incapacitated the two pilots before they knew they were in danger.

One of the F-16 pilots said he could not see the captain in the cockpit and his co-pilot appeared to be slumped in his seat.

A spokesman for the European Aviation Safety Agency, Daniel Holtgen, based in Cologne, Germany, said the cause of the crash was likely to be a combination of factors:

"It is highly unlikely that the loss of cabin pressure alone would cause such an incident. There would have to be other contributing factors."

Indeed so very very tragic..My prayers go out to all the families and loved ones lost.

[macfanken]

Originally Posted by MoonChilde

Indeed so very very tragic..My prayers go out to all the families and loved ones lost.

Very sad and kind of creepy. It's very strange that the oxygen apparently failed... there are supposed to be several back up systems to prevent something like this.

[GypsySorcerer]

My heart goes out to the victim's families. That is so horrifying and frightening.

[strandinthewind]

It was an odd day for airtravel. As I was getting to the New Orleans airport, I saw two 777's which never go to New Orleans - one was a Continental, which does fly smaller planes into New Orleans - the other was an Air France one and Air France does not fly into New Orleans at all. They were there to refuel because of bad weather, which was a little ominous. Then, as I am boarding the plane, I see that this Greek plane had this horrible accident. I wanted to turn around and get the hell out of there But, I got home safely only to fly a few more times in the next two weeks.

I gotta calm my life down.

But, on topic, these poor people. I can only hope that many did pass out in 10 seconds and had no clue regarding their situation and impending death.

[DrummerDeanna]

Originally Posted by macfanken

Very sad and kind of creepy. It's very strange that the oxygen apparently failed... there are supposed to be several back up systems to prevent something like this.

indeed.

So the initial story said a third of the passengers were children - the second one posted said an airline official was denying that. interesting.

What sad story - and a bit freaky as I'll be flying in less than a week....

[ThePenguin]

I read an account where there were only 8 or 10 children. Not that it really makes a difference, still horrible.... but I think that was a misprint/misinformation. There were only 121 people total, I doubt 48 of them were kids.

-Lis

[macfanken]

Originally Posted by strandinthewind

It was an odd day for airtravel. As I was getting to the New Orleans airport, I saw two 777's which never go to New Orleans - one was a Continental, which does fly smaller planes into New Orleans - the other was an Air France one and Air France does not fly into New Orleans at all. They were there to refuel because of bad weather, which was a little ominous. Then, as I am boarding the plane, I see that this Greek plane had this horrible accident. I wanted to turn around and get the hell out of there But, I got home safely only to fly a few more times in the next two weeks.

I gotta calm my life down.

But, on topic, these poor people. I can only hope that many did pass out in 10 seconds and had no clue regarding their situation and impending death.

Bad weather at another airport might explain the 777s at New Orleans... like thunderstorms in Houston or something.

[strandinthewind]

Originally Posted by macfanken

Bad weather at another airport might explain the 777s at New Orleans... like thunderstorms in Houston or something.

That is what they were saying. I just though it odd that there were two and they were on "E" But, I understand why as I have been rerouted more than once due to weather, esp. when I used to fly often on the Embraer
turbo prop. So, it makes sense, but was still alarming. Then again, I am not wild about flying though I do it every other week or so.

[macfanken]

Originally Posted by strandinthewind

That is what they were saying. I just though it odd that there were two and they were on "E" But, I understand why as I have been rerouted more than once due to weather, esp. when I used to fly often on the Embraer
turbo prop. So, it makes sense, but was still alarming. Then again, I am not wild about flying though I do it every other week or so.

They were probably arriving from overseas, which means they don't have a lot of extra hold fuel on board, they're not going to wait long before heading to an alternate airport. So yeah, they were probably on "E". (I assume you mean "EMPTY" and not "ECSTASY"!)

[strandinthewind]

Originally Posted by macfanken

They were probably arriving from overseas, which means they don't have a lot of extra hold fuel on board, they're not going to wait long before heading to an alternate airport. So yeah, they were probably getting close to "E".

I felt so sorry for the passengers because it was 95 in New Orleans (I am sure that translated into over 110 on the tarmac) and the planes were sitting there with their doors open and rolling steps going up to the doors. It seemed the passengers were still on board and supplies were being brought to them. I have been there before and let me just say I felt like I was in a steam bath

[skcin]

I just heard about this today, no clue how I missed it. This kind of stuff scares the crap out of me. Truly horrific. Those poor people.

BTW - the guy who claims his cousin text messaged him from the plane the "we're freezing" message apparently lied.

[JazmenFlowers]

How horrible. It's so sad to see that many people lose their lives at that one time. It is definitely tragic. Much love to those families and friends of the victims.