OTD August 14, 2005 – Helios Airways Flight 522 crashes and kills 121

A Cypriot plane belonging to Helios Airways crashed into a hill north of Athens on August 14, 2005, killing all 121 people on board in the worst air disaster in Greek history.

Human error was behind that terrifying 2005 ghost flight that crashed outside Athens and killed all 121 people on board.

The problem with this 737 started when the ground crew set the plane’s pressurization system to manual to check for a reported leak.

The system was never returned to automatic mode. Investigations after the accident showed that the flight crew had several opportunities to notice and correct the setting, but never did. Instead, the pressure began to drop 13 minutes into the Cyprus-Prague flight.

Alarms sounded on board but the pilots, beginning to feel the effects of hypoxia, misinterpreted them. Even after the oxygen masks fell on the passengers, the plane continued to climb.

Unresponsive to radio communications, the aircraft flew into Greek airspace, where two F-16s intercepted it. The pilots saw a grim scene. The 737 pilots were slumped on their controls and the passengers were wearing oxygen masks.

A moment of hope came when a flight attendant, still conscious after using several containers of crew oxygen, entered the cockpit and took control of the plane. But it was too late.

The plane was out of fuel and it crashed into a mountain outside Athens. Investigations revealed that the passengers were alive but unconscious at the time of the accident, although some Greek officials believe that many passengers froze to death during the accident. flight.

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