'Passengers were already dead'
2005-08-15 08:32
Athens - The majority of the 121 passengers aboard a Cyprus airliner that crashed into a mountain Sunday killing all 121 passengers aboard may have already have been dead or unconscious prior to impact, early indications suggested on Monday.
Sunday's crash, the worst air disaster in Greece, occurred minutes after the pilot of the Cypriot Helios Airlines jet, told air traffic controllers the plane was experiencing air conditioning problems.
Burned beyond recognition
All 115 passengers and six crew died, the majority burned beyond recognition when the plane spiralled out of control into a mountainous area about 40km north of Athens.
As the relatives of the victims began arriving in Athens on Monday to begin the difficult process of identifying the bodies, authorities were faced with the perplexing task of finding out what happened, whether the plane suffered from cabin pressure failure or a lack of oxygen supply.
The last minutes of the 737 flight from Larnaca to Prague via Athens appear to have baffled Greek authorities.
Two Greek F-16 fighter planes were ordered to trail the "renegade jet" after it lost contact with the control tower at Athens International Airport once it entered Greek airspace over the Aegean Sea, approximately 23 minutes after take-off.
Last effort to regain control
The fighter pilots reported to Greek authorities that with the pilots out of action there may have been a last effort by others on the plane to bring it under control.
"The situation was characterised renegade, meaning the aircraft was not under control of the pilots," Roussopoulos told reporters.
"At a later stage, the F-16s saw two individuals in the cockpit apparently trying to regain control of the air plane but we are unclear if they were members of the crew or passengers," he added.
"The F-16s also saw oxygen masks down when they got close to the aircraft. The aircraft was making continuous right-hand turns to show it had lost radio contact," he added.
A man whose cousin was a passenger on the plane told Greek television he received a cell-phone text message minutes before the crash.
The passengers were largely Greek Cypriots, including a group of 48 youngsters headed for a trip to Prague, Helios spokesman Giorgos Dimitriou told reporters at Athens airport.
The Greek Defence Ministry said the crashed Cypriot plane suffered from oxygen or cabin pressure problems.
"The first indications, in Cyprus and in Greece, are that it was not caused by a terrorist act," said Marios Koroyian, a spokesperson for President Tassos Papadopoulos. "It looks like the plane was on automatic pilot when it crashed."
Greek media have speculated that toxic gas from a faulty air-conditioning system could have knocked-out the two pilots before they knew the plane was in danger.
One of the F-16 pilots said he could not see the captain in the cockpit and his co-pilot appeared to be slouched in his seat. - dpa
- SAPA