NEWS: Cypriot Airliner Crashes in Greece., page 1

posted on Aug, 14 2005 @ 04:57 AM

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A Cypriot airliner with 121 people on board has crashed just north of Athens. There are reports that one of the pilots collapsed. A state of emergency has been declared at Athens international airport.

www.abc.net.au
Just before the crash, an Athens international airport official said the Helios passenger plane appeared to be flying pilotless.

"The airport lost all contact with the plane, which should have landed in the late morning, and two air force planes sent up in reconnaissance found it flying above the Euboea peninsula, but they saw the pilots doubled up in the cabin," Athens airport traffic control chief Iannis Pantazaratos said.

Greek state television said there was an unconfirmed report that one of the pilots had collapsed with illness just before the crash.

The flight from Larnaca in Cyprus to Athens reportedly hit a mountain on the Euboea peninsula.

Please visit the link provided for the complete story.

I centainly hope this is not terrorist related. My thoughts go out to the families of those on board.

Related News Links:
news.y ahoo.com

[edit on 15-8-2005 by John bull 1]

Souljah

posted on Aug, 14 2005 @ 05:22 AM

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This is a Sad Start of a Day.

Apparently two F-16 Fighter Planes were Escorting this Airplane, and Pilot of the one of the escorting fighters said, that it looked like there was no Pilot in the Cockpit!

[edit on 14/8/05 by Souljah]

sanctum

posted on Aug, 14 2005 @ 05:33 AM

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A Cypriot Boeing 737 airliner with at least 121 people on board has crashed, with the pilots apparently slumped at the controls, near the Greek capital Athens.

A spokesman for the Greek army chief-of-staff said hijacking "could not be ruled out".

"An act of piracy is likely," said the spokesman, Gerassimos Kalpoyannakis.

Just before the crash, air force crew observed the airline's pilots doubled up in the cabin, an air traffic controller said.

The pilots of the two F-16 fighters jets that were sent up to escort the airliner before the crash "saw a situation that was not normal in the pilots' cabin", Mr Kalpoyannakis said.

(bold added)
Source

It looks like this tragedy could be terrorist related.

Sanc'.

BedroomRevolution

posted on Aug, 14 2005 @ 05:35 AM

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The bbc website also has this story and says the F16 pilots saw the pilots of the plane slumped in there chairs in the cockpit looks very strange and somewhat alarming

news.bbc.co.uk...

Harlequin

posted on Aug, 14 2005 @ 06:09 AM

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Or the pilot had a heart attack at the controls

Zaphod58

posted on Aug, 14 2005 @ 06:10 AM

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There are reports of an air conditioning malfunction before take off. Many family members received text messages from people on the plane that they were freezing because the air conditioning was running so cold.

[edit on 14-8-2005 by Zaphod58]

Tinkleflower

posted on Aug, 14 2005 @ 06:25 AM

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This is not good news

It does look more than a little suspicious, from the first accounts...then again, I can't help but wonder if we're just thinking that automatically because of the current fear-mongering tendencies of the press, etc.

BedroomRevolution

posted on Aug, 14 2005 @ 06:36 AM

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Now looks no more than a loss of cabin pressure still not good but less likly to be terrorist related

www.sky.com...

nikelbee

posted on Aug, 14 2005 @ 06:42 AM

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Wasn't the co-pilot slumped over and the pilot nowhere to be seen and not in the cockpit. I wonder where he was.

edition.cnn.com...

Vegemite

posted on Aug, 14 2005 @ 07:07 AM

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I heard that it wasnt pressured so the pilots blacked out or something.

Figher Master FIN

posted on Aug, 14 2005 @ 07:11 AM

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What the hell were those F-16 doing there...?

Zaphod58

posted on Aug, 14 2005 @ 07:17 AM

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They were told to intercept the plane after the air traffic controllers couldn't talk to it on the radio. They asked the F-16s to take off and look to see if anything strange was going on.

subz

posted on Aug, 14 2005 @ 07:24 AM

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The F16's were sent up because thats what youre meant to do when you cant raise a plane. Not just let it fly into your capital

This doesnt sound terrorist related. There was SMS sent from the passengers of the "pilot turning blue" and them being "freezing" but none about terrorists.

Hellmutt

posted on Aug, 14 2005 @ 08:04 AM

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I´ve heard on CNN (tv) an interview with a spokesman. He said something about the accident could have been avoided. They could have landed on another airport but the pilot made a bad decision or something. It´s all a bit confusing right now so take this as speculation until this is confirmed.

Harlequin

posted on Aug, 14 2005 @ 08:08 AM

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The Boeing 737 came down at about 0920GMT near the coastal town of Kalamos, about 40 kilometres north of Athens.

One witness said: "I saw many bodies scattered around, all of them wearing oxygen masks. The tail was cut off and the remaining parts of the plane rolled down a hillside about 500 metres away from the tail."

www.sky.com...

Souljah

posted on Aug, 14 2005 @ 08:09 AM

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Apparently there was an Error in the Oxygen Circulation System - so the Pilot and the Co-Pilot have lost Conciousness.

And the Oxygen masks were also deployed for the Passengers.

Zaphod58

posted on Aug, 14 2005 @ 08:26 AM

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There could have been a mask problem, or a bottle problem for the pilots. Or any number of problems going to the cockpit. From what I heard on CNN the F-16s were trying to make contact with them to get them to divert, but were unable to. From an earlier report the Greek ATC never got contact with the airliner, so whatever it was it affected them before they got that far. Reminds me of the Payne Stewart accident.

Riwka

posted on Aug, 14 2005 @ 08:29 AM

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Fire chief says there are no survivors in Greece plane crash (AP)

The majority of the victims (80 of the passengers )were Greek children on their way home after a holiday in Cyprus.

[edit on 14-8-2005 by Riwka]

Zaphod58

posted on Aug, 14 2005 @ 08:33 AM

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A family member reports getting a text message just before the crash that the piltos were unconscious.

Interesting thing I just noticed. There was a video that showed a water bomber dropping on the fire, and the tail was upright, but in just about every other video I saw the tail was lying on its back facing the sky.

[edit on 14-8-2005 by Zaphod58]

sanctum

posted on Aug, 14 2005 @ 10:41 AM

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The flight and cockpit voice recorders of a Cypriot passenger plane which crashed near Athens overnight have been found, a Greek defence ministry official said on condition of anonymity.

news.com.au

I hope the recorders are not too damaged and will provide some data regarding this tragedy.

Sanc'.