Posted on 08/15/2005 8:47:22 AM PDT by 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."
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
It's cold up there.
At 30,000 feet the outside air is minus 50 degrees.
Hopefully they passed out quickly and didn't know what happened.
It's really cold up there at high altitudes.
That's why there are ice caps on mountains even along the equator and the tropics.
-30 F *according to an aviation expert interviewed on radio.
I know nothing about planes, but it seems like there would be several ways to determine if this problem is occuring. Sounds like it only take a few minutes to recognize a problem of this nature and then take action to lower altitude.
Was this a 737, 727, or other?
Its very very cold up there. Upon decompression, a pilot is supposed to lower his altitude to where it is not so cold, but you know, that A/C system which is suppose to heat the air must have completely failed. This is weird. Perhaps the pilot and copilot were incapacitated before they could bring her down to a safe altitude... Hmmmmm, never mind, a REAL freeper pilot or person in the know is gonna have to chime in on this one!
Not when the pilots are the first to go.
And if you are wearing shorts, I guess that it pretty cold.
I have been in -30...but wearing a huge parka and not out in it that long. Everything in your nose freezes when you breethe.
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.
I'd look for a modification of this particular claim before long.
It can happen quickly and there are 20 seconds to do something about it once the oxygen is depleted.
that's what doesn't make sense to me. why would the pilots be the first to go? we know that because the text message indicated that...why would this have happened that way?
And of course, this is all Bush's fault.
I used to work nights in a sawmill here in Michigan. I saw -30 and colder lots of times but I was dressed for it.
Bush probably made the airline hire low wage illegals to fly the plane:)
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