Posted on 08/16/2005 4:41:08 AM PDT by MindBender26
.
Control tower lost contact with plane at 4:00 a.m....people heard explosion around 5:00 a.m.
per, Jose Antonio Jimenez, a Venzuelan radio (?) anchor.
I think he said it was a DC9...but I may have heard wrong.
Also, the gent who provided the text message he received from his cousin, supposedly on board the Athens flight, has been arrested. Apparently the "passengers are turning blue, we're not going to make it, farewell" message was a hoax.
Missing body, missing flight recorder.
Any bets on the background of the "German" pilot being from some place a lot warmer?
Something tells me that the black box isn't missing, but hidden.
Well, from the pictures I've seen, nothing recognizeable was left of the aircraft except the tail section, so it was obviously a devastating high-speed impact. But still, those boxes are built to withstand tremendous forces, so I'm really surprised over this. I don't think I've ever heard of a flight recorder container just ejecting the contents like that.
The other point the article brings up--that's an older non-digital CVR, it records on a 30-minute loop like an answering machine tape. So there's no chance that we'd hear the pilots talking about the failure anyway, more than likely, since it happened a couple of hours before the crash. It might have audio of whoever those people were in the cockpit that the F-16 pilots saw, though.
}:-)4
How old was the jet that crashed near Athens, do you recall hearing?
IIRC, 152 pax and crew seems like a lot for a DC-9.
Click here for a little info on the DC9 :)
Gruesome as it is, apparently these poor people were not in one piece after the accident and fire. May have to use forensics to identify the pilot.
It was only said once, and Fox didn't repeat it....I probably heard incorrectly.
Contact with the MD-80 plane was lost soon after, in the area of Machiques, Francisco Paz said.
Venezuelan officials believe the plane came down between 0300 and 0345 local time (between 0700 and 0745 GMT).
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/4156224.stm
Well, I did hear that some were burned beyond recognition, but also they were able to determine that not all bodies were frozen, as was previously reported, so they must have enough forensic evidence to determine that. And they must have been able to ID most of the bodies in order to report that the pilot, specifically, was not accounted for.
Which brings up another point. When the Greek fighter jets looked into the windows, didn't they report seeing one body slumped over in the cockpit, I don't think they reported both pilot and co-pilot were present in the cockpit.
Tin foil hat time, LOL!
thanks for the update
Sounds like these guys were really cutting corners. No wonder the police are involved.
yw....I thought I might have heard wrong.
Purest speculation - Trouble with both engines sounds like contaminated fuel would be a likely suspect.
Been following this on FR, which is what attracted me here. Amazing stuff. Just when I was convinced it was faulty oxygen gear, they, at the very least, make the situation complicated if not outright suspicious.
Bad emergency oxygen is scandalous. Gutting the CVR - unheard of!
How convienent...
Kinda like the Flight Attendent in the Ron Brown crash.
Ping for the truth.
Well, FNC's going to have more on both crashes after their break.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.