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Coroner: 6 alive when Cypriot plane crashed
(AP)
Updated: 2005-08-16 08:59
Initial autopsies showed that at least six of the 121 people aboard a Cypriot
plane were alive but not necessarily conscious when the aircraft crashed while
on autopilot, a coroner said Monday, as authorities struggled to explain the
actions of the pilot and crew, reported the Associated Press.
The results of the first six autopsies shed some light on the final
minutes of Helios Airlines Flight ZU522, which crashed Sunday into a hillside in
suburban Athens, killing all 115 passengers and six crew members. But they
failed to answer all the questions.
In Larnaca, the Cypriot city where the flight took off, police raided the
offices of Helios Airlines, seeking "evidence which could be useful for the
investigation into possible criminal acts," said Cypriot deputy presidential
spokesman Marios Karoyian.
The tail of a Cypriot airliner is seen as
investigators carry plastic bags at the crash site where the aircraft
slammed into a hill, in the coastal town of Grammatiko, Greece on Monday,
Aug. 15, 2005. [AP] | Greek aviation officials have said the plane apparently lost pressure
suddenly, causing a rapid loss of oxygen on board. In that case, passengers and
flight crew would have had only seconds to put on oxygen masks before losing
consciousness amid subzero temperatures. Death would be minutes behind.
But two fighter jet pilots who scrambled to intercept the plane saw the
co-pilot slumped over, oxygen masks in the plane dangling, and two unidentified
people trying to take control of the plane. The pilot was not in his seat when
the plane crashed, about 2 1/2 hours after the crew first radioed in air
conditioning problems, officials said.
The fire department has said none of the bodies had masks on their faces.
"It's odd," said Terry McVenes, executive air safety chairman for the Air
Line Pilots Association, International. "It's a very rare event to even have a
pressurization problem and in general crews are very well trained to deal with
it."
Athens' chief coroner, Fillipos Koutsaftis, said he could not determine
whether the six people whose bodies were examined were conscious when the Helios
Airways Boeing 737-300 plunged 34,000 feet into a mountainous area near the
village of Grammatiko, 25 miles north of Athens.
"Our conclusion is they had circulation and were breathing at the time of
death," Koutsaftis said, but stressed: "I cannot rule out that they were
unconscious."
Officials in the coroner's office said ongoing autopsies on another six
bodies were likely to show similar results. They asked not be named because the
results had not yet been publicly released.
Greek and Cypriot officials have ruled out terrorism as a cause of the crash.
Investigators, to be joined by U.S. experts, were sending the plane's data
and cockpit voice recorders to France for expert examinations.
But the head of the Greek airline safety committee, Akrivos Tsolakis, said
the voice recorder was damaged. "It's in a bad state and, possibly, it won't
give us the information we need," he said.
The pilots of two Greek air force F-16 fighter planes scrambled to intercept
the plane after it lost contact with air traffic control shortly after entering
Greek airspace said they saw the co-pilot slumped over the controls. The pilot
did not appear to be in the cockpit, and oxygen masks were seen dangling in the
cabin.
The fighter jet pilots also saw two people possibly trying to take control of
the plane; it was unclear if they were crew members or passengers.
The plane might have run out of fuel after flying on autopilot, air force
officials said, asking not to be named in line with Greek practice.
Searchers still were looking for three bodies, including the plane's German
pilot, fire officials said. The body of the Cypriot co-pilot was found in the
cockpit.
After the crash, authorities said it appeared to have been caused by a
technical failure 錕斤拷 resulting in high-altitude decompression. A Cypriot
transport official had said Sunday the passengers and crew may have been dead
before the plane crashed.
U.S. aviation experts said they could not understand the behavior of the
flight crew.
Jim Hall, former chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board, said
it was possible that the oxygen in the cockpit failed.
He said the NTSB has been concerned about the ability of the pilots to get
their masks on quickly enough.
"The accident did not have to occur," said Hall. "It has to be either a
training issue or an equipment issue."
In a related development, police in northern Greece arrested a man who
claimed to have received a telephone text message from a passenger. The man 錕斤拷
identified as Nektarios-Sotirios Voutas, 32 錕斤拷 told Greek television stations
that his cousin on board the plane sent him a cell-phone text message minutes
before the crash saying: "Farewell, cousin, here we're frozen."
But authorities determined he was lying, and arrested him on charges of
dissemination of false information.
A passenger list showed there were 20 children under the age of 16 on board,
although the airline initially reported as many as 48 children were passengers.
Cypriot authorities identified the pilot as Marten Hans Jurgen, 50, from
Berlin. Helios' general manager, Andrewas Drakos, said he did not know how long
the pilot had worked for the airline.
A spokesman for the German Foreign Ministry, speaking on condition of
anonymity in line with German practice, identified one of the pilots as a
58-year-old German but would not give his full name. It was unclear why there
was a discrepancy in his age. Greek and Cypriot authorities often list surnames
before given names, and Hans-Juergen would likely be the pilot's first name.
In Berlin, police were guarding the pilot's home in a quiet Berlin
neighborhood near the Schoenefeld airport.
The name on the mailbox said Merten. Neighbors confirmed his first name was
Hans-Juergen and said he was a pilot in his 50s, but refused to provide any
other details.
The airliner's pilots had reported air conditioning system problems to Cyprus
air traffic control about a half-hour after takeoff, and Greek state TV quoted
Cyprus' transport minister as saying the plane had decompression problems in the
past.
But a Helios representative said the plane had "no problems and was serviced
just last week."
Helios said the Boeing 737-300 was manufactured in 1998 and previously
operated by Deutsche BA. It entered the Helios fleet in April 2004, the company
said.
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