Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community - View Single Post - Plane goes down; decompression the culprit?

maleficent · 08-22-2005, 02:16 PM

Quote:

Cry on wrong frequency went unheeded, reports say
ATHENS, Greece -- An exhausted-sounding man sent last-minute "Mayday" calls from a Cypriot airliner that mysteriously crashed earlier this month killing 121 people, investigators have revealed.

But according to Greek media the calls went unheeded because the man -- thought to be a steward trying to take over the controls and fly the plane -- was tuned to the wrong frequency.

In a preliminary report released Monday, investigators said the plane appeared to suffer a depressurization problem and crashed when the engines stopped after it ran out of fuel.

But what launched the chain of events that brought the plane down remains a mystery.

The Helios Airways Boeing 737 crashed on August 14 into mountains near Athens, killing all 115 passengers and six crew in Greece and Cyprus' worst air disaster.

The plane had flown for two-and-a-half hours without making radio contact, and F-16 fighters scrambled to investigate had reported seeing no pilot in the cockpit and a seemingly unconscious co-pilot slumped in his seat.

The crash's Greek chief investigator Akrivos Tsolakis said in his initial report Monday that a steward who had some flight training was thought to have made the last cry for help from the plane's cockpit.

Police have confirmed that steward Andreas Prodromou, who was learning to fly small planes, was inside the cockpit and appeared to be trying to fly the plane for about 30 minutes before it crashed.

"The man who sent the Mayday calls sounded tired and exhausted," the report said.

Greek media reported Athens control tower did not pick up the Mayday warnings because they were transmitted on a wrong frequency.

The report confirmed earlier theories that the plane got into trouble after developing a depressurization problem.

"There are signs there were problems with the compression system," Tsolakis said in the report, read out on state TV.

In his letter sent to Greece's transport ministry, Tsolakis also said the Boeing crashed after the engines stopped.

The plane ran out of fuel at 35,000 feet (10,000 meters) after flying for nearly twice the scheduled 90 minutes from Larnaca in Cyprus to Athens, a stop on the way to its final destination Prague.

"That are indications of technical problems in the pressurization system. ... There is proof that the engines of the plane stopped working because the fuel supply was exhausted, and that this was the final cause of the crash," the report said.

Autopsies have found that those crew and passengers whose bodies were examined were alive on impact and did not suffer from carbon monoxide poisoning -- possibly indicating that a lack of oxygen rendered them unconscious.

The plane took off at 0607 GMT from Larnaca and about 35 minutes later reported a problem with the air conditioning system but was told to fly on to Athens.

Shortly afterwards Cypriot aviation officials failed to communicate with the plane's cockpit at 0637 GMT and informed Athens control tower.

Almost an hour later, as the plane neared Athens but still failed to make any contact, two Greek F-16s took off to shadow the plane, which at 0904 GMT crashed into the mountainside.

Helios, owned by Libra Holidays Group, a British holiday tour operator, has defended its record but revealed the crashed plane had a previous cabin pressure problem.

Last December the plane had to descend swiftly from 34,000 to 11,000 feet on a Warsaw-Larnaca flight, it said.

Helios flies to Athens, Greek islands, Dublin, Sofia, Warsaw, Prague, Strasbourg and British airports.

On Sunday, Greek Public Order Minister Giorgos Voulgarakis repeated government assurances that the plane had not been shot down.

"If this incident had taken place during the Olympics, the chances of it being shot down would have been extremely high," Voulgarakis said in a newspaper interview.

this sounds more and more like a bad hollywood disaster movie... only it's real... (anyone remember the Airport movies from the 70s? )