Cypriot plane carrying 121 crashes near Athens

By Yannis Behrakis

GRAMMATIKO, Greece (Reuters) – A Cypriot airliner carrying
121 people slammed into a mountainous area north of Athens on
Sunday after apparently suffering a loss of cabin pressure or
oxygen minutes before it was due to land.

“The pilot has turned blue,” a passenger said in a mobile
text message to his cousin. “Cousin farewell, we’re freezing.”

Greek TV station Alpha said the pilot had told air traffic
controllers the Boeing 737 was experiencing air conditioning
problems. Moments later, communications with the plane, flying
at 35,000 feet en route from Larnaca in Cyprus to Prague via
Athens, were lost.

Police and firefighters at the crash site said there were
no immediate signs of survivors.

A Greek police spokesman said there were 115 passengers and
six crew members on board, of which 59 adults and eight
children were heading to Athens, with 48 continuing on to
Prague.

Plane wreckage was scattered widely about the mountainous,
uninhabited area, about 40 km (25 miles) north of Athens and
dense black smoke billowed from several small fires.

“I saw many bodies scattered around, all of them wearing
(oxygen) masks. The tail was cut off and the remaining parts of
the plane rolled down a hillside about 500 meters away from the
tail,” one witness told Reuters.

Planes dropped water over the wreckage site as rescue
workers fanned out searching for survivors.

Two Greek F-16 fighter jets were scrambled after the Helios
Airways jet lost contact with the control tower at Athens
international airport.

One of the F-16 pilots reported that he could not see the
captain in the cockpit and his co-pilot appeared to be slumped
in his seat, a Defense Ministry official told Reuters.

“I saw the plane coming. I knew it was serious or that it
was some kind of VIP because I saw the two fighter jets,” said
witness Dimitris Karezas, who owns a summer camp in the area.

“Two, three minutes later I heard a big bang,” he said.

The Defense Ministry said it suspected the plane’s oxygen
supply or pressurization system may have malfunctioned.

A senior government official told Reuters there were no
signs of foul play. “But we are still investigating all
possible scenarios,” he said.

The crash was the worst airline disaster in Greek history.

LOST CONSCIOUSNESS

Cypriot airport officials said flight HCY522 left Larnaca
at 9 a.m. and lost contact at 10:30 a.m. The pilot appeared to
have lost consciousness due to a loss in cabin pressure in the
cockpit, Larnaca airport officials said on Cyprus state
television CYBC.

Kieran Daly, editor of Air Transport Intelligence, said the
cause of the crash was a “puzzle.”

“There are very good procedures in place for dealing with a
lack of oxygen. There are so many warning systems, the crew
should have been aware there was a problem,” he told Reuters.

“The passenger commenting that it was cold suggests there
was no air circulating in the cabin at all or the cockpit.”

A spokesman of the European Aviation Safety Agency, Daniel
Holtgen, based in Cologne, Germany, said: “It is highly
unlikely that the loss of cabin pressure alone would cause such
an incident. There would have to be other contributing
factors.”

As the extent of the disaster became clear, Greek Prime
Minister Costas Karamanlis broke off his holiday on the Greek
island of Tinos to rush back to Athens.

Cypriot President Tassos Papadopoulos headed to Larnaca,
where frantic relatives and friends gathered outside the
offices of Helios.

At the airport in Prague, where friends and relatives had
been gathering to meet the flight, screens showing departures
and arrivals read simply “delayed.”

Helios was Cyprus’s first private carrier, established in
1999. It flies to Dublin, Sofia, Warsaw, Prague, Strasbourg and
several British airports using a fleet of Boeing B737 aircraft.

There have been problems reported involving Helios planes
in the past. In December 2004, three passengers were taken to
hospital after the plane lost cabin pressure and made an
emergency landing at Larnaca.

In September 2003 a Helios plane had engine problem. It
diverted to Rhodes and landed safely.

Libra Holidays Group, one of Britain’s leading independent
holiday tour operators, bought Helios in November 2004.

Flights at Athens International Airport were operating
normally, airport police said.