What happened on board Helios Airways Flight 522?

Question

Anybody agree that this accident is really suspious?

I read that one of the pilots or both, were unconscious, and a fighter jet say the cockpit empty but the plane still flying.

But why did it still crash?

Did the crew/passengers have any knowlege of what was going on?

Could the plane have landed on auto pilot/land?

Answer 1

Helios Airways Flight 522 (HCY 522 or ZU522) was a Helios Airways Boeing 737-31S flight that crashed on 14 August 2005 at 12:04 EEST into a mountain north of Marathon and Varnavas, Greece. Rescue teams located wreckage near the community of Grammatiko 40 km (25 miles) from Athens. All 121 on board were killed.

there cabin decompressened

the plane b4 take off was reported in not a good state but was cleared due to such a short flight

Answer 2

During previous maintenance the pressurisation had been turned off, just a switch. The flight crew mistook the alarm for another possibility and were trying to find out what was wrong with the wrong thing as they slipped into unconsciousness. the plane then flew on autopilot till it ran out of fuel. Discovery channel and/or Nat Geographic show it as "Air Crash Investigation " from time to time

Answer 3

The fact that one of the flight attendants was in the cockpit a couple of times, and apparently on portable O2 for possibly 3 hours (according to the Nat Geo TV report) is unfortunate. All that had to be done was an emergency descent. Could also have descended the cabin manually, or switched to auto.

I was co-pilot in a jet which took off with pressurization in manual mode. I won't go into the details of how or why it happened---except to say quite accidental and the appropriate pre-take-off checks were made. We noticed the cabin wasn't pressurizing, leveled off at a safe altitude (with ATC approval) and ran the checklist. Second or third item in checklist was the auto/manual switch.  Problem solved. My unscientific opinion is that most pressurization  issues are the result of the airplane not properly pressurizing, not the result of explosive decompression. That is why it is important--and is a checklist item in aircraft I've flown---to confirm that the cabin is pressurizing (cabin altitude, cabin pressure differential), early in the climb (below 10,000), and again at FL 180.There are also cabin altitude warnings. Not sure if I find it suspicious, having taken off once in manual---preventable, yes.  The other Nat Geo that was on recently was about Fed Ex 705 heavy. What a flight that was!!

Answer 4

basically, maintence check, turned pressurisation level to manual, and didnt change it back to auto.

therefore, the plane didnt automatically pressurise, whatever height the plane was, that was the air being breathed in. usually, you breathe air pressurised to around 6-8,000 ft. not 20,000+

Answer 5

This case was depicted on the National Geographic channel some time ago, I think it was on 'Seconds from Disaster'

IIRC during maintenance the air intakes had been covered (which was normal) but the engineers had forgotten to remove the covers and therefore the plane couldn't take in fresh air. this caused the instruments to give a false reading and also affected the cabin air. rendering all the passengers and crew unconscious.  As the plane was on 'auto pilot' it continued on it's way until it ran out of fuel and crashed.

Answer 6

There was nothing suspicious about the accident.  It was the result of poor maintenance and poor procedures.

The pilots were unconscious due to a lack of oxygen.  The pressurization system was in manual mode and since the pilots never bothered to go through the proper checklists, they never discovered this.  They disregarded the low cabin pressure alarms and passed out soon after as the plane climbed.

The aircraft crashed because it ran out of fuel.

Nobody knows if the passengers knew anything.  At least one crew member did because he tried to enter the cockpit (but the door was locked and he apparently didn't know the combination to get in).

The plane could have landed on autopilot if the pilots had been awake to reset the MCP altitude, which is required to authorize a descent, and to perform a few other manual manipulations.  They were unconscious, though, so the aircraft could not descend, and instead tried to fly the entire approach at high altitude.  When it didn't land, it entered the missed-approach holding pattern, and stayed there until it ran out of fuel.

No mystery, just incompetence.

Answer 7

nothing suspicious. just gross negligence.

Read this:

http://www.cyprusweekly.com.cy/default.a...

Answer 8

Read this

Answer 9

hijacked