14 Aug 2005; 5B-DBY, 737-300, 29099/2982, Helios Airways; Near Athens, Greece:
The aircraft departed Larnaca at 06:07 GMT for Athens. The crew reported to Cypriot ATC that they had a problem with the air conditioning system and wanted to remain at 16,000ft. At 06:26 the crew said that they had solved the problem and requested a climb to 32,000ft. Radio contact was lost with the aircraft at approximately 06:37, 30 minutes after its departure, although it did sqwark 7700. Greek F16's intercepted the aircraft at 07:20 and reported that the Captain was not visible and that the F/O appeared to be slumped over the controls. Some reports also say that two other persons appeared to be in the flight deck. The aircraft crashed into mountains at 09:03 GMT after running out of fuel approx 19NM North of LGAV near the village of Grammatiko, the passenger oxygen masks had deployed.
Depressurisation is a possible cause but why the crew were not able to use their oxygen and descend the aircraft to safety is still a mystery. The FDR was recovered immediately but the CVR was only found six days later and in poor condition. Autopsies have found that those crew and passengers examined were alive on impact and did not suffer from carbon monoxide poisoning, possibly indicating that they suffered from a lack of oxygen and were unconscious.
Reportedly the same aircraft has had a history of pressurisation related problems and suffered a loss of cabin pressure on 20 Dec 2004 in flight from Warsaw to Larnaca.
All 115 pax and 6 crew died.
This was taken from
www.b737.org.uk,
Also this version of the aircraft had a 2591 mile range with max payload on board wich roughly gives it about a 4hr flight time.
its a sad time for aviation with all these crash's happening so soon
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