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.
"A loss of pressurisation 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.
Two Greek F-16 fighter jets were scrambled after the plane lost contact with the tower at Athens international airport.
One of the jet pilots said he could not see the captain in the cockpit and his co-pilot appeared to be slumped in his seat.
A Greek Government spokesman Theodore Roussopoulos says the fighter jet pilots saw the two people trying to assume control in the cockpit during the final approach.
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"They saw two people in the cockpit, we don't know if they were crew members or passengers, appearing to want to take over the controls," he said.
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Oh yah, source for last comment:
http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200508/s1437355.htm
The last 4 or 5 paragraphs.
More info:
news24.com so far has scooped everyone with announcement from Greek authorities:
http://www.news24.com/News24/World/News/0,,2-10-1462_1753993,00.html
Pilots of two Greek air force F16 fighters that were scrambled to investigate after the doomed aircraft lost contact saw the two people trying to assume control in the cockpit during the final approach, Theodore Roussopoulos said.
"They saw two people in the cockpit, we don't know if they were crew members or passengers, appearing to want to take over the controls," he said after a government meeting called to discuss the accident.
The two pilots had initially seen "the co-pilot slumped over and perhaps unconscious and the pilot not in his seat", he said.
They had also reported that oxygen masks were "activated" in the cabin, he said.
http://www.news24.com/News24/World/News/0,,2-10-1462_1753956,00.html
Crash: Toxic gases to blame?
Toxic gases
"This seems to have been observed by the pilots of the F16. Otherwise I don't see how a simple depressurisation could lead to an accident," he said.
"We could imagine an intoxication of the pilots by the air-conditioning system, that's to say that something must have burned in the air ducts which took toxic gases into the cockpit - perhaps odourless - which caused the loss of consciousness."
However Feldzer said this would be the first air accident of this type.
"There have been problems of depressurisation, faults in air-conditioning, breathing of noxious fumes, but that has never led to an accident," he said.
Each have different emergency oxygen systems -- cockpit is supplied by compressed O2, while the cabin drop-down masks are supplied by chemical O2 generators. The former is nominally over an hour's worth, while the latter only last for about 20 mins. There might also have been portable O2 bottles in the cabin, normally for use in medical emergencies.
Good points.
Wonder if it was shot down.
It is indeed "fishy".Could they have been drugged?
Finally, we have a rational and educated theory. Thanks COEXERJ145 for your standard introduction of reality into tinfoil land.
Sucking a deep breath of certain gases could sear the lungs and cause incapacitating pain.
Doesn't need a terrorist , just one person making a mistake.
good points, imagine if the pilot's oxygen was somehow "wrong". He could have done the cabin pressure loss drill correctly with a defective auxiliary oxygen supply.
One report has this:
"Although there are precedents for both pilots losing consciousness at the controls of aircraft in the past, for it to happen on a large airliner like a Boeing 737, with all the backup systems they have there, does seem to be really quite extraordinary," said Kieran Daly, editor of Air Transport Intelligence.
Quite extraordinary and highly suspicious.
Our heartfelt sorrow to the families of the departed. May the Lord comfort the living and bless the dead with His love.
Question -
On an American plane filled w/your regular Americans w/their many hobbies and life experiences, and assuming all of the passengers didn't pass out when the pilots did, do you think it likely there would have been at least one passenger with piloting skills? And if such a person were present, could s/he have successfully landed the plane?
I seem to remember a recent terrorist warning that there were going to be attacks in London, Italy, and Greece.
Has anybody checked the maintenance crews who worked on this aircraft ..??
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