August 14, 2005
Hijacking cause for the downing of Helios 737?
Was the Helios Airways Boeing 737 heading towards Prague hijacked?
Let’s weigh and consider.
From The Australian:
HIJACKERS or faulty airconditioning are the key suspects behind Greece's worst air disaster, after a Cypriot airliner with 121 people aboard hurtled into rugged hills just 10km from Athens airport last night.
From The Courier-Mail:
HIJACKING was believed responsible for the crash of a Cypriot airliner with 121 people on board last night.
From Sofia News Agency:
A spokesman for the Greek army chief of staff said as quoted by BBC that the possibility of hijacking the Cypriot plane could not immediately be ruled out.
From Gulf Daily News:
PARIS: A pressurisation failure could not on its own have caused the crash of the Cypriot airliner killing 122 people near Athens, French experts said last night.
From Reuters AlertNet:
Experts told Reuters it was extremely rare for a plane to lose oxygen, and that emergency systems should have kicked in."The pilots should have had their masks on," a retired British pilot who did not wish to be named told Reuters. "Why they didn't put them on is the big mystery."
-----
A spokesman for the European Aviation Safety Agency, Daniel Holtgen, based in Cologne, Germany, said the cause of the crash was likely to be a combination of factors:
"It is highly unlikely that the loss of cabin pressure alone would cause such an incident. There would have to be other contributing factors."
From News24:
Paris - A pressurisation failure could not on its own have caused the crash of the Cypriot airliner killing 121 people on Sunday near Athens, French aeronautical experts said."A failure of pressurisation could not cause an aircraft to crash.
"It is impossible that after a loss of pressurisation the plane could not be recoverable," aircraft accident expert and pilot Francois Grangier told AFP in Paris.
-----
Grangier said the plane would have been at fairly low altitude as it approached Athens airport, and that a loss of pressurisation would not have had any effect on the aircraft's structure, nor would it have made the pilots immediately lose consciousness.
He also said the pilots would also have had their own oxygen supply.
From Telegraph:
Greek television reported remarks by Cyprus transport minister Haris Thrasou that the plane had previously had problems with decompression.But a spokesman for Helios said at Athens airport: "The plane had had no problems and was serviced just last week."
From The Sun Online:
The pilots of two F-16 fighters scrambled to fly alongside the stricken Boeing 737 said they saw two passengers grappling with the controls.They also saw one pilot slumped at the controls and no sign of the other.
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According to a British source, the pressurisation and air-conditioning systems had both been repaired before the plane took off from Larnaca.
From WISTV:
The Greek government says the F-16 pilots flew by the Helios Airways plane a second time and saw two people apparently trying to take control of the Boeing 737. It's not known whether the people were crew members or passengers.
From Cyprus News Agency:
"The pilots got close to the Helios aircraft and realized that the pilots of the civil aircraft would not respond to their calls. The F-16 pilots saw that the co-pilot was on the floor, probably unconscious and the captain was not at his seat in the cockpit. Oxygen masks had dropped down from the places, and they also saw two persons in the cockpit who seemed to be trying to fly the plane," he said.
From New York Times:
"Although there are precedents for both pilots losing consciousness at the controls of the aircraft in the past, for it to happen on a large airliner like a Boeing 737, with all the backup systems they have there, does seem to be really quite extraordinary," said Kieran Daly, editor of Air Transport Intelligence, a news agency that covers the industry."It really is all very peculiar," he added. "I rather suspect we're heading for a very complicated investigation."
At the time of this writing, airline experts are at a loss to explain how a Cypriot plane carrying 121 people crashed earlier today. Was the Helios Airways Boeing 737 heading towards Prague hijacked? We will soon see.
Posted by Mike Tate at August 14, 2005 11:20 PMYou don’t know much about Airplane crashes, eh? Some of the worst disasters are caused by the most stupid things. Not everything is a terrorist. A similar incident happened to that Cessna a while back. It killed that Golf Player.
Posted by: Aldous at August 15, 2005 04:19 AMThe most important thing when assessing a plane crash is to allow the information to be gathered before pronouncing a cause. Sometimes a preliminary hypothesis is ruled out.
Intelligent investigators don’t make snap judgements—they allow the investigation to run its course.
And Aldous, by the way, “that golf player” was an extraordinary gentleman by the name of Payne Stewart.
Posted by: joebagodonuts at August 15, 2005 01:37 PMI’m for waiting for the investigation to be finished before any conclusions are made as to the cause of the crash.
While I was in the Air Force there was always rumor about what caused a plane to crash, and most of the time it turned out to be somthing completely different.
Hijacking could be the cause, but then so could several other things.
I think it was some kind of explosive decompression early in the flight. According to reports I’ve heard, the bodies on the plane were frozen solid, even the burned ones.
Posted by: Stephen Daugherty at August 15, 2005 03:15 PMI think the story of the bodies being frozen solid is much less believable than a suggestion of a hijacking gone awry.
The bodies might have shown signs of damage due to exposure to cold air, but they were alleged to still be frozen even where the flesh was burned.
It sounds ridiculous. How long were the people exposed to cold air?
Posted by: oino sakai at August 15, 2005 05:25 PMI’m not calling any shots here, or claiming it was hijacked. Just interesting as to what has already happened. The cell phone text message has been proved a hoax.
This investigation is going to be interesting.
Posted by: Mike T. at August 15, 2005 06:10 PMIt sounds ridiculous. How long were the people exposed to cold air?
It doesn’t take very long to be frozen at the temperatures reached at cruising altitude (about -40 degrees IIRC). Remember, the plane was without contact for at least 43 minutes. That’s more than enough time for bodies to freeze solid.
I think the story of the bodies being frozen solid is much less believable than a suggestion of a hijacking gone awry.
I think this is written by a fan of the Dirk Gently novels: The impossible often has a kind of integrity to it which the merely improbably lacks.
Posted by: LawnBoy at August 15, 2005 06:56 PMStay tuned. In the next post in this column, someone will say that multiculturalism caused the plane to crash.
;-)
Good Grief:
Elliottbay: Don’t you think they’d have already been claimed but that’s just my opinion. Isn’t multiculturism the cause of all the problems in the world?
I Agree with you Elliott.
As Always,
Wayne
Delete: “they’d have already been claimed”
Insert: “That would have been claimed by now,
Sorry hit wrong button while previewing and editing.
As Always,
Wayne
Posted by: Wayne at August 16, 2005 01:53 PM
Wayne,
If there isn’t evidence forthcoming that multiculturalism caused the crash, I expect to see a post that claims that the “liberal press” is covering up the evidence.
;-)
Posted by: ElliottBay at August 16, 2005 05:44 PMElliottBay:
I forgot all about them, Those Sneaky little bastar*s.
As Always,
Wayne
Isn’t multiculturism the cause of all the problems in the world?
No but it’s close.
Sorry guys, just couldn’t resist the temptation.
Posted by: Ron Brown at August 16, 2005 09:12 PMNo, the cause of all the problems in the world, if I read this column, is President Clinton. ;-)
Posted by: ElliottBay at August 16, 2005 11:56 PMElliotBay,
Were you aware that Clinton actually started the Civil War?
Posted by: Rocky at August 17, 2005 03:42 AM411 — The windows of the Cessna that Payne Stewart died on were fozen over, i.e. you couldn’t have seen in. If the same thing (rapid cabin depressurization resulting in freezing temperatures) occured on the Cypriot jet, how is it that the F-16 pilots could see in?
Posted by: Rob Wiebe at August 17, 2005 07:58 AMDuh, don’t know why I said Cessna. Payne Stewart and 4 others died on a Learjet 35. The windows were frosted over, though. You can look it up.
Posted by: Rob Wiebe at August 17, 2005 08:18 AMElliotBay and Rocky,
It has been reported by a group of our finest and most patriotic journalists that include Cal Thomas,Bill O’rielly and Rush Limbaugh that an anonymous White House source who calls his wife Mrs. Rove,has met with the F-16 pilots who were in posession of photos showing that it was actually Hillary Clinton fighting with the co-pilot for control of the airplane.
They go on to add that the photos were stolen by Sen. Kennedy and destroyed at his estate with the help of Joe Wilson and several unnamed homosexuals.
How do you explain this?
You liberals.
“This investigation is going to be interesting”
The blue side won’t find it interesting unless they can find a way to blame Bush or the evil Christians Mike.
Next time, ask “What did the US do to make these mistreated, innocent people turn to terrorism?”
Its an interesting event and now we have the Venz crash.
You and Ron are right, we need to wait for the investigation.
But, what if the first reports and the investigation are different?
Would it be possible that the people are being told something different so as not to cause panic?
Ron Brown:
Not a Problem, Sorry I did not get back to you sooner.
Just Passing Gas,
As Always,
Wayne
My opinion for what its worth,
The hot bleed air duct or duct coupling manifold broke on the bleed air inlet side of the air conditioning packs heat exchanger.
Ambiant air -40 to -60 degrees enters the heat exchangers which lower the temprature even more, this now super cooled air continues on its journey and is pumped into the cabins air conditioning system.
Oxygen or no oxygen, nobody is going to stay alive that long to breathe it they would become incompacitated then unconcious.
Then the question, why did the crew not reduce altitude earlier in the flight to a height where the passengers could breath without oxygen and then disengage the air conditioning system.
Guys & Ladies ,
As wisely mentioned, already, wait for the facts before jumping into conclusions.
So far nobody found frozen to death - on the contrary all bodies investigated died on crash.
If something is wrong in the controlling devices ( blue screens eh Bill G!) then no communication and no oxygen is available. Hypothesis.
Consider before flying cheap next time that no DRP is in place.
Cost reduction 4ever.
Posted by: GVidalis at August 18, 2005 08:12 AMi am a Greek citizen and i am convinced that the cyprous airplane was finaly hit by the two f16 fighters.
They had the order to protect Athens and they obeyed.
All the rest..about crash due to the lack of fuel seem cheap efforts to hide this fact..
