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Sunday, August 14, 2005 - Two Greek F-16s where scrambled from their base on Sunday, August 14th around 11:30am local to intercept a Helios Airways B737 in Greek airspace. Helios Airways flight 522 was on its route from Larnaca (Cyprus) to Athens (Greece). Because they failed to contact the Athens Area Control Centre, the Greek F-16s were scrambled to intercept it. As the F-16s approached, the pilots saw no sign of life in the cockpit, and the plane seemed to be on autopilot. One of the F-16 pilots reported he could not see the captain in the cockpit and that...

A Cypriot passenger airliner carrying at least 121 people has crashed north-east of Athens. The plane - from Helios Airways - hit a mountain as it approached Athens after one pilot was seen slumped in his seat and the other could not be seen. An air traffic controller at Athens airport told the AFP news agency the plane, travelling from Larnaca, Cyprus, crashed into the Euboea peninsula. The crash was reported by F-16 pilots sent to aid the struggling plane. A spokesman for the Greek army chief of staff said the possibility of a hijacking could not immediately be ruled...

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...

ATHENS - A Cypriot airliner carrying 115 passengers and six crewmembers, crashed north of Athens on Sunday, the defense ministry and fire department said. The Helios Airways flight crashed at about 12:20 p.m. near the coastal town of Kalamos, just north of the Greek capital. Witnesses told Athens radio station they saw the plane, which was being followed by fighter jets, go down. Helios Airways in a privately owned Cypriot airline.