Victims may have died before crash( Passengers frozen solid! )

CNN ^ | 08/15/2005 | CNN

[devane617]

ATHENS, Greece (CNN) -- Investigators were working to determine why a Cypriot plane apparently suffered a catastrophic loss of cabin pressure and slammed into a Greek mountain -- possibly with all 121 people on board already dead. All but two of the bodies have been recovered, a Greek government spokesman said Monday, and officials hope autopsies and cockpit recorders will hold clues to Sunday's crash of Helios Airways Flight 522. The autopsies were ordered to determine if the 115 passengers and six crew were already dead or oxygen-starved before the crash, the spokesman said. A Greek Defense Ministry source with access to the investigation told Reuters that most of the bodies recovered were "frozen solid."

[mewzilla]

Were they at 30,000 ft? I thought a short haul flight would be flying a lot lower, say at around 15,000. If so, wouldn't that have bought them a little more time?

[It's me]

A cell phone call MINUTES before the crash has been "re-interpreted" from "I am frozen" (as in fear or other)

How about "I am frozen" to mean esactly that. He was frozen.

[Pukin Dog]

It be cold up there. A failure in the environmental systems, and you've got man-cicles.

[ninenot]

That's cold enough.

-30F is about as low as it goes in SEWisconsin during January. Calls for multiple layers of clothing not to mention vigilance about leaning exposed skin in the breeze.

[kjam22]

Sounds to me like the passengers air supply worked... and the air supply to the pilots didn't work. And the passengers rode around in the cold until their air ran out, or until they died due to the cold.

[Heatseeker]

At 35,000 according to the BBC.

[ninenot]

Nope, we only let them load luggage and maintain American planes.

...at USAF bases.

Not to mention nuke plants.

[maestro]

UR# 41 ...i agree....

....there 'is' something not being told here.....

?...british T.V. cameras in the cockpit of all commercial planes?

/OFF....'friendly-bombers'

[devane617]

If that is the case, and they were aware the pilots were dead, that must have been horrendous death.

[Kelly_2000]

"but didn't you notice a number of false information tidbits right from the beginning, before they even knew what had happened? "

Yes I agree my comments are not based on that initial misinformation

"apparently the plane went around and around for 20 minutes without communication, according to a report today. "

Not so much "around and around" as carried on it's pre configured flight path due to the autopilot.

The F16 pilots that "buzzed" the airliner reported seeing passengers moving in the cabin on their first pass. They saw clearly the pilot slumped over the controls while passengers where seen moving around in the passenger compartments.

It is also possible the passengers caused the crash of the airliner by attempting to gain manual control.

Too soon to tell the recovery and crash analysis has not even got under way yet.

It is very strange and suggests the cabin crew succumbed prior to the passengers.

[KarlInOhio]

1. 0900 [0700GMT]: Helios Airways Flight ZU522 leaves Larnaca bound for Prague via Athens
2. 0920 approx: Plane reaches cruising altitude of 35,000ft
3. 0937: Plane enters Greek airspace
4. 1007: Air traffic control unable to contact aircraft
5. 1030: Greek ATC issues "Renegade alert"
6. 1055: F16 fighter aircraft scramble
7. 1120: F16s intercept aircraft; pilots observed slumped over controls
8. 1205: Aircraft crashes near Grammatiko, 40km north of Athens

[neodad]

I know that modifications on the 727 were made years ago after that guy bailed out in Washington (was it?). Can you bail out of a 737 of any model?

[kjam22]

That's what I think happened..... but no one had a long enough oxygen cable to go fly the plane to a lower altitude.

[Zavien Doombringer]

Being an Environmental System Specialis/technician in Air Force. The Temperatures at 30,000 feet are below zero. If cabin pressure is lost in flight, oxygen loss (hypoxia) will cause the passengers to pass out. loss of the AC/heating will cause them to ..well... freeze at altitude.

The AC System actually pressurizes the aircraft.

[mewzilla]

Thanks! I'm no pilot, but isn't that a little high for a short haul?

[Paradox]

According to this site, http://www.drjack.info/INFO/analysis.html , the lapse rate is 5.4 degrees per 1000 feet. For 30kft thats -162 drop, for a final temp of -72 degrees.

[Dallas59]

Bush and Zionists.

[finnman69]

-50F air being blown in for an hour....

[null and void]

Yeah, but even at -30 it takes a living, warm body a long time to convert into "frozen solid." I don't think the plane was airborne long enough for that.

Add wind chill? LOTS of wind chill!

[PAR35]

Based on the shortness of the flight (1 hr), I don't think it can.

Per an AP report posted on this thread http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1463039/posts?q=1&&page=201 (post 258), the plane was in the air over 3 hours before the crash. Have a source for the 1 hour?

Communication was lost about 2 hours before the crash.