Posted on 08/14/2005 4:49:17 AM PDT by Gorons
Athens - A Cypriot Boeing 737 airliner with 121 people on board from Larnaca, Cyprus, crashed apparently pilotless on Sunday near Athens, a traffic controller at Athens international airport told AFP.
Just before the crash, airforce crew observed the airline's pilots doubled up in the cabin, the controller said.
A spokesperson for the Greek army chief-of-staff said hijacking "could not be ruled out".
"An act of piracy is likely," said the spokesperson, Gerassimos Kalpoyannakis. The pilots of the two F16 fighters that were sent up to escort the airliner before the crash "saw a situation that was not normal in the pilots' cabin."
Kalpoyannakis said the plane crashed at Varnava, an uninhabited area about 40 kilometres northeast of Athens and not on the Euboea peninsula as previously reported by the Athens control tower.
He said teams of rescue workers, fire-fighters and ambulances were on their way to the scene and that all the hospitals in the region had been placed on emergency status.
There was no immediate word on casualties.
"The plane has crashed," said Iannis Pantazatos, who was in charge of the Athens airport control tower. "The information was given to us by the air force, which sent two fighters to escort the aircraft."
Shortly before the plane crashed, Pantazatos told AFP: "The airport lost all contact with the plane, which should have landed in the late morning, and two air force planes sent up in reconnaissance found it flying above the Euboea peninsula, but they saw the pilots doubled up in the cabin."
"We do not know how the plane is flying. It is being escorted by the military planes and the airport is in a state of emergency." he said.
The Helios airways plane was reported to be carrying 115 passengers and six crew.
Helios, established in 1999, is the first private airline in Cyprus. It had a fleet of four Boeing 737 jets and operated flights to London, Athens, Sofia, Dublin and Strasbourg in France.
Yes, on many aircraft, the cockpit uses a different system than the passenger cabin. It would appear in this case that either the O2 system failed in the cockpit, or the cockpit was flooded with lethal gases from the air conditioning unit. Clearly, the environmental system failed, which could have been responsible for knocking out the pilots, while at the same time causing decompression in the cabin, which led to the cold temperatures although the passengers had emergency oxygen. The pilot probably did try to reach the separate O2, but failed to make it before it was too late. The co-pilot collapsed, causing the plane to begin oscillations, before the final fatal dive.
I'm stil waiting for an explanation about the 2 people in the cockpit.
Makes no sense at all...
Anyone else that thinks this is a good idea freepmail me and we will have a brain storming session to develop the idea.
Why you no good SOB. Since neither of us are flying fighters right now, I'll have to challange you to an FMS programing contest. Just you and me, 1 v 1. I'm talking PDB's, holding patterns...the works. I'll show you who the better pilot is!!!
Makes no sense at all..."
Oxygen deprivation effects people in different ways depending on many factors. Some people's bodies use oxygen more efficiently than others. Also, the oxygen system for the pilots may use a different source than for the cabin. It could be that the cockpit oxygen system malfunctioned and they died of lack of oxygen, while the passengers survived.
That theyre having trouble finding the TP?
People climb Mt Everest at 29,035 feet without oxygen. It sounds like this was not a rapid decompression but a slow leak.
True, and I agree with the slow leak. But I have watched people pass out from lack of oxygen at altitudes as low as 18,000. The folks who climb Everest without oxygen spend considerable time acclimatizing to the altitude (ie. lack of oxygen) before they make their ascent.
Snort*. . .I just see ya doing that.
Wait. . .leave me out of the beat-up Pukin fun?
No way!
IMO the questions should be: How many members of the "religion of Peace" have become mechanics and caused the mehanical failures?
Oh, this is hilarious....
Guess all you want. It was a mechanical error. I know 'conservatives' seemingly want to lay every plane crash at the feet of radicals, but a plane crash can just be a plane crash without Islamic 'conspiracies' you know.
Maybe but probably not.
The locking of cockpits is a federal law that applies to US aircraft. Other carriers of other countries do not have the same flying regulations we do in this country. Perhaps the cockpit was unlocked.Perhaps even the door was open.Air France pilots are allowed to have a glass of wine with their meals.
It's alarming that the TSA wants to allow razor blades to be brought back on board US flights.
Hold on a second here. I finally have the bigger airplane with more engines. And if you count the wingtips I even have more than one tail. Plus, I STILL don't have anyone whining at me from behind. Now if I could just replace the "control wheel" thingy with a sidestick, and I might feel a little more at home.
Oh yeah, one more thing. Around FedEx the MD-11 is known as the "electric jet", just like my Viper. Of course that says a little more about what else FedEx flies than anything about its similarity to the F-16.
Could you be a little more specific? For that matter, is it possible to be any less specific.
Of course the scrawl on TV quoted some Greek official "no terror" literally as the first reports came out.
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