Oh no!! That is bad news. Plane crashes are becmoing common these days. First that Air France A340, then that Tuninter ATR and now this...What type of aircraft was it?

Just found out!! Beoing 737-300 tail number 5B-DBY of Helios Airlines. This is that exact same aircraft; the only 737-300 that Helios has...RIP to all crew and passengers

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I thought Helios was its name Hard to tell, webstream quality is bad...............and now I'm totally cut off. A lot of people will want to watch this :/

Yep, can't connect to server anymore. Anyone in Greece with a TV to keep us updated?

On leaving Cypriot airspace, they radioed problems with the on-board pressure and temperature control.

It didn't radio in on reaching Athens FIR.

Co-pilot was slumped in his seat, pilot was nowhere to be seen, and a third person wearing a gas-mask was seen in the cockpit when two HAF F-16 made passes and attempted to make contact.

Terrorism is not being ruled out...

Sounds like a fatal airco/heating failure...

Ground reports indicate it has been shattered completely at impact

Just confirmed: this particular plane had been grounded due to similar problems with the aircon/heating/pressurisation system. On its last flight before being grounded (this was the first flight after it had been grounded), some passengers had to be hospitalised...

Botched repairwork perhaps?

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UPDATE: These problems were reported to the company's technicians, NOT the tower either at Larnaca or Athens.

There was no contact between tower and airplane.

at -50 you wouldn't last more than a few seconds when combined with hypoxia.
sad loss whatever happend

Theres no point speculating cause of the accident, especially in the case of this crash, its just too complicated. There is nothing to say the text was sent just before impact. Chances are it was actually sent as the whole thing was happening at altitude, but the cell phone wouldn't have had a signal to send it till it was closer to the ground. while you dont need as much of a signal as you do for a call, you still need some sort of connection to send a message.

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Very good point. didn't realize it was a text msg. Whatever the case, it's a bummer...

What I understood from a news broadcast on a German station is that the plane was flying for about 60 to 90 minutes on autopilot and without any contact to the ground or the fighter pilots escorting it. Also the Boeing dropped from it's altitude when it ran out off fuel. Apparently there is a video of the crash made by the F16 pilots which is under investigation at the moment.

Crash

The black-boxes have been found...let's hope we find out what really happened

I know it's been said before, but it really is odd... pilots are trained to perform emergency descents in the event of this type of emergency... I would have to say something else happened, or it was severe pilot error.

Know we're not really supposed to speculate, but they should've been able to do an emergency descent.

Pilot is said to have collapsed in the cabin while looking for the extra oxygen bottle. at least that was what one of the passengers sent on his phone

It's a shame this had to happen as the airline apparently knew the aircraft had problems with depressurisation before.

Only text message received: The pilot looks blue (from cold) goodbye, cousin.
So the guy saw the pilot. That explains that he was not in the cockpit.
Only pilot seen in cockpit was the FO. He was lying over his contolls.
As for the black boxes. I don't think he cockpit voice recorder wil be a great help, since it only records the last 30 minutes of flight. I think they all passed out long before that.
These are all facts. No speculation.

This is really worth a read. Read the write-ins at the bottom.
I found this one of interest (she lives where my Aunty lives btw)

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http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/4152806.stm#graphic

Lol - but you are missing the point! j/k

That aside the 737 was brought out about 20 years ago I think which isn't so long ago.

Not sure I get the point Ben. Monarch Airlines was operating the Boeing 737-200 in 1983. http://airlines.afriqonline.com/airlines/797.htm

I don't know the registration of the one involved in this incident but according to their website Helios operate the B737-800. The first two were delivered brand-new from Boeing in May 2001. http://www.flyhelios.com/about_fleet.php

PS. 5B-DBY (previously D-ADBQ) B737-31S. Ex-Deutsche BA/Fly-DBA. Delivered new 15/01/1998.
http://www.airfleets.net/ficheapp/plane-b737-29099.htm

There's talk of a minute's silence before the match.  I hope that happens. 

Fake pictures are starting to appear

http://www.dunningmarketing.com/helios_photos.htm

Apparently these were leaked by the Greek airforce, taken a few minutes before the Helios airliner went down.

Obviously, they are fake. The dead giveaway are the double emergency doors above the wing, that's a feature of a 737-800, the 737-300 (suchas the one that crashed) has single doors above the wings.

Furthermore, in the first pic you can see how the Y at the end of the registration was photoshopped, it looks totally different than the other letters.

Finally, the Helios jet was intercepted by F-16s from Crete - which are Block 52. Yet the picture shows Block 50 F-16s.

These pics are of a 737-800 that was intercepted by Greek F-16 Block 50 - it is not Sunday's flight.


Why would anyone fake such pictures?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/4172740.stm

More info. That is interesting - lack of fuel? Seems rather an unusual problem - hardly as if it was a really long flight.

Sad that a flight attendant tried to take over...  makes our recent thread in the General forum seem rather arrogant in a way.

Well yes, it could take ages before the results are conclusive.
But how could it run out of fuel, even on autopilot and crash when it hadn't even reached its destination? ??? It wasn't like it had overshot Greece or anything.

Doug, did you notice the time scale at the bottom? That's what I mean - it doesn't add up.

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 ,