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Two Greek Falcons made the most terrible reconaisance mission in Hellenic Air Force history. At about 11:30 a Cypriot "Helios" company passenger liner lost communications with Athens International Airport over Kea island. 2 F-16's intercepted and escorted the plane only to find out that the captain was not vizible at all and the co-pilot was unconsious on his chair. A few minutes later the liner crashed on a mountain near Kalamos, a very populated area. None of the passengers or the crew survived the crash because of the very hi speed the plane crashed.

To avoid missunderstanding, I must say explicitely that no weapon use took place for 2 reasons:

The Hellenic Air Force does not shoot down civil planes in peacetime in ANY circumstances. This "September 11th" U.S. directive does not apply in any E.U. state.
It was a recon - communication relay mission and probably the Falcons were unarmed at all.

Later news (now) report that 115 passengers and 6 crew are deceased.

How awfull, must have been hell for the F-16 pilots to witness that. What kind of aircraft was it? A 737?

I hope they find the "Black-Boxes" and find out the cause.

My heart felt support goes out to all reletives, it must be terrible for them. Sad

Yes, it was an Helios Boeing 737-300 aircraft. Some news sources here in Israel say the pilot might have lost his conscious as a result of low air pressure in the cockpit.

Last edited by Attila on Aug 14, 2005 - 12:07 PM; edited 1 time in total

Just looked at the news, seems someone sendt a message by cellphone about it beeing cold (pressure loss). But enough to knock out the crew?

The Viper pilots had supposedly seen the oxygen masks dangling inside the cabin.

Just talked with my father, he was a Flight Engineer on civ. aircraft before he retired and now helps out when there's a crash here in Norway. He said that it takes only seconds before you pas out when the cabin blows at aprox. 20'000 ft. I didn't know that.

Latest news from Greece.

11:18 Two F-16s from Crete (Iraklio) intercepted and then escorted the 737-300.
12:01 (or 12:20 by other sources) The 737 crashes. Reports from the pilots say about all passengers and crew were unconsious during the final moments One F-16 was flying as close as possible and its pilot (ostensibly a very expierienced one)could see through cocpit and passenger windows.
14:00 (newscaster from TV station) Technical reprts from Cyprus say that aicraft was bought secondhand from Egypt and Cypriot press protested to that buy.
14:30 Reports from airport authorities. Most probable cause was carbon monoxide poisoning through the air presurisation system. Thus the cabin was pressurized but the CO is ororless but extremely poisonous. The crew and the passengers were probably already dead before the crash. Mechanical failure or sabotage are referenced as possible causes.

At this time rescue teams alongside with the Fire Departmenttry to salvage as much as possible under harsh conditions (the area is on fire but controllable)

I am still watching for any news ....

Attila:
The word "freeze" in Greek plain language means also paralyzed. Paralysis is a symptom just before death from CO (if the victim is still concious). Oxygen masks system react automaticly if smoke or loss of pressure is detected by the emergency system sensors. But CO is poisonous in parts per thousant densities as it blocks oxygen flow through blood to the brain. Probably the pilot was aware and tried to sve the copilot and the passengers by manually activating the oxygen system but it was late.

All information converge to a rare, probably unique series of mechanical failures incident... Cyprus government confirmed the identities of the passengers and crew, all beyont any suspicion so the terrorist attack or highjacking possibility deminishes.

Sabotage on the ground cannot be excluded yet, research of the causes is underway.

Reports say that it is impossible to sent a GSM/DCS SMS from a Boeing 737 at 25000ft but over Aegean let me doubt that. (I am an Electrical Engineer -specialized in radio and radar engineering... Mobile phone coverage is extendent in range over the Aegean for obvious reasons of companies "competition of best radio coverage")

Last edited by George111 on Jan 20, 2008 - 08:21 AM; edited 1 time in total

Hello friends. Our deepest condolences go to the families of the victims of this tragedy.

From what we have so far: The HAF responded according to the plan regarding interception of unknown-not communicating aircraft entering Hellenic airspace with potential to become a threat for Athens or any other city. This counter-terrorist plan was implemented for the first time one year before, for the protection of the capital during the Olympic games.

The pilots tried to contact the Helios 737 with no success. Their pilots observed that the pilot's seat was empty, with the oxygen mask hanging from the top. The co-pilot was slumped over the controls.

Nikos, the SMS message(es) in question are quite an interesting part of the equation. Thanks for your input on that matter.

George

The plane was a 737-31S (reg.5B-DBY) which was acquired from DBA (reg.D-ADBQ) on April 2004. According to newer information the F-16s took-off from 111 FW (Nea Anchialos).

Deepest condolences guys, terrible accident, must be quite extraordinary and upsetting for the viper pilots...

Enthusiast Joined: Jul 13, 2003 Posts: 49 Status: Offline

Pictures of the Helios B737, being escorted by the 2 F-16's

These are FAKE.
The 737 in these pictures is a 737-800, and not 737-300 as the aircraft that crashed (2 emergency exists over the wing, the 737-300 has only 1), and also the exhaust nuzzels are a bit difference on the -800.

Also, the F-16 in the first picture looks American or Singaporean with that red stripe at the top of the fin, and not Greek. It's probably a Singaporean Viper, since American ones don't have the tail fairing.

Just in case anyone is interested. The 737-300 is normally equipped with high pressure gaseous O2 for the crew and chemical O2 generators for the pax plus a number of walkaround bottles for the F/A's. One of the problems will be that the older voice recorders only holds 30 mins of recording and then start recording over the older data. If the crew was incapacitated more than 30 mins there will be nothing useful on the VR. Also the older flight recorders only capture a limited number of data channels. I'm pretty sure cabin pressure is one of them but I don't think the crew O2 bottle is. This one may be very difficult to find the cause.

Certainly my condolences go out to all.

Elite 1K Joined: Apr 26, 2004 Posts: 1191 Status: Offline

These photos look altered to me.

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Greek F-16s escort a Cypriot civil plane to its destiny