'We are all frozen'
2005-08-14 13:42
Athens, Greece - A Cypriot Helios Airways jet with 121 people on board crashed on Sunday in a mountainous region north of Athens after losing contact with the airport, officials said. It was unclear if there were any survivors.
The Boeing 737 crashed at about 12:20. (09:20 GMT) near the coastal town of Grammatikos north of Athens after losing contact with air traffic control, officials said. The cause was not immediately clear, but an airline safety official said there was an apparent lack of oxygen and the plane may have lost cabin pressure.
Reports said the two pilots may have been unconscious and slumped in their seats when the plane went down. Greece's air force had scrambled two F-16 fighter jets to tail the plane after it lost contact with the airport, and the air force reportedly said there was no movement inside the cockpit.
A man who said he was a cousin of one of the passengers told private Alpha television that he received a text message on his mobile phone minutes before the crash saying the pilots were unconscious.
"He told me the pilots were unconscious," Sotiris Voutas told the station. "He said: 'My cousin I bid you farewell, we are all frozen."'
The crash was one of Greece's worst aviation disasters. TV footage showed smoking wreckage with only the plane's tail section recognizable on a mountainside in a rocky area about 40km north of Athens. Rescue teams were at the scene.
"It's the worst accident we've ever had," said Akrivos Tsolakis, the head of a state committee for investigating airline safety. "There apparently was a lack of oxygen, which is usually the case when the cabin is depressurized."
The flight, with 115 passengers and six crew members on board, was headed from the Cypriot city of Larnaca to Athens International Airport for a stopover on its way to Prague, Czech Republic, the airline said.
"There is wreckage everywhere," Grammatikos Mayor George Papageorgiou said from the scene, saying that only the tail section was recognizable. "The fuselage has been destroyed. It fell into a chasm and there are pieces. All the residents are here trying to help."
Helios Airways, a privately owned airline founded in 1999, is Cyprus' first independent airline. It operates a fleet of Boeing 737 jets between Cyprus and a number of cities in Europe and the Middle East.
- AP