Posted on 09/07/2005 10:11:55 AM PDT by WmShirerAdmirer
ATHENS, Greece (Reuters) -- Alarms heard on a Cyprus passenger plane that crashed near Athens last month confused pilots, who did not realize there was a lack of oxygen in the cabin, the International Herald Tribune reported on Wednesday.
The German captain and his Cypriot co-pilot struggled to communicate effectively in English and misinterpreted the alarms, failing to identify problems with the pressurization of the plane, the report said, citing sources close to the crash investigation.
The Boeing 737 plane, operated by Helios Airways, crashed east of Athens on August 14, killing all 121 passengers and crew on board.
According to the newspaper, the crew first heard an alarm warning of a failure to pressurize but which they mistakenly thought was indicating a malfunction of their controls.
A second alarm related to the air cooling system went off minutes later, prompting the captain to leave his seat to try to turn it off. He quickly lost consciousness due to lack of oxygen, officials told the newspaper.
An official involved in the investigation refused to comment on the report.
"This is all speculation and until the official results of the inquiry are released they will remain only speculation," the official told Reuters.
Pilots of two Greek fighter jets that were escorting the plane until the crash have confirmed the crew was visibly unconscious and the captain was not in his seat minutes before fuel ran out and the aircraft rammed into a hillside.
The failure of the plane to pressurize stemmed from maintenance the night before the flight, the report said. The maintenance crew apparently left a pressurization controller rotary knob out of place and the crew did not catch the mistake during preflight checks the next day, it said.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
Also read that language was an issue between the German pilot and Cypriot crew.
Instead of an alarm, they should show the pilots a short video of a guy asphyxiating.
"The failure of the plane to pressurize stemmed from maintenance the night before the flight, the report said. The maintenance crew apparently left a pressurization controller rotary knob out of place and the crew did not catch the mistake during preflight checks the next day, it said."
How vulnerable the system is ... that one vital oversite was not recognized by the trained pilots. Apparently there is no back up for such a mistake. The results are total. As was the private plane that had the same problem about a year or so ago. Totally fatal.
PC gobbledygook notwithstanding, English is THE international language, and no one should be allowed to serve in any position of responsibility without a thorough command of it. The completely globalized modern world simply cannot function without a common language.
There is a backup. A warning sound and caution light came on. Instead of heeding the warning, apparently the pilot tried to silence it, if this report is accurate.
What is left, having the autopilot take control of the aircraft and bring it to a lower altitude?
Any pilots out there know?
Masks are supposed to drop. But realistically...if you have a massive loss of pressure...you have barely 1 gulp of air to conclude that this requires the mask and to grab it. If you fail on that first gulp of air...you probably won't get a second gulp...and you will get just enough air to survive...but thats about it. And if you count in the temperature situation...you probably are freezing by the end of 20 seconds. A guy in great shape, might be able to eventually grab enough air and get the mask on...and perhaps move forward through the cabinet although you are talking about 10 minutes to walk 10 steps.
My point in raising the question about masks is this: a mask dropping from the ceiling would be a lot more difficult for a pilot to ignore than a warning light would be. And, if the link Textide provides is accurate and the masks *don't* drop automatically in the cockpit, then that might be a feature that Boeing would want to add in future versions of their planes.
righty-tighty......lefty-loosey
so I guess that pre-flight walk around and check list is there for a reason?
ping
As a pilot, but not an airline pilot, I blame the pilots and maybe the company/Cypriot FAA here. They should be intimately familiar with all of the aircraft's systems, especially if they're flying something as advanced as a B-737.
The first step when any alarm goes off is to identify the alarm. The next step is to determine whether the alarm is malfunctioning or whether it's telling the truth. Apparently, these pilots were unfamiliar with the alarm, or else they would've put on their masks immediately, then determined whether the alarm was indeed telling the truth.
In short, proper training of the airline crew would've likely prevented this accident (based on the article). To move some of the myriad of other switches which a pilot needs away from them in order to make room for an oxygen mask that is in a position where they should've known it to be, is misplaced concern IMO. It doesn't save anyone in that accident, sure, but you can bet that every air crew since has reviewed their depressurization procedures because of this accident, making future flights safer.
Spent a fair amount of time traveling in out of the way places in foreign countries and learned from 1st hand experience that when you see an expat 1st officer and a local 2ed you may only have a one pilot cockpit. You are betting your life that the expat pilot has enough knowledge to overcome inherent problems.
Then you wonder why he had to take that job instead of one in his home country.
Happy Landings
Hopefully you're right, and other aircrews will learn from this incident.
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