Category: News and Views
Hi. This happened today. Even if it didn't affect me it made me very sad.
From the BBC news.
Cypriot plane crashes in Greece
A Cypriot passenger plane carrying at least 121 people has crashed near Athens after losing radio contact with air traffic control.
Greek F-16 fighter jets scrambled to locate the plane reported seeing one pilot slumped in his seat, but could not see the plane's second pilot.
The Helios Airways plane, travelling from Larnaca, Cyprus, crashed in hills just north of the Greek capital.
Rescuers have reportedly found dead bodies but are yet to find survivors.
Greek TV reported that a passenger sent a text message to a cousin telling him that the pilot had turned blue in the face and the plane's temperature had
plummeted.
Larnaca airport authorities told Cyprus state TV that the pilots may have lost consciousness because of a sudden drop in cabin pressure.
Farewell cousin we're freezing
Passenger's text message
"Farewell cousin we're freezing," the message read.
There were suspicions that the plane had been hijacked, but these were swiftly ruled out by Greece's foreign ministry.
The head of air traffic control at Athens airport, Iannis Pantazaratos, told AFP that authorities lost contact with the plane, and air force pilots found
it flying above the Euboea peninsula with the pilots doubled up in the cabin.
Rescue effort
Greek Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis cut short a holiday on the island of Tinos to return to Athens.
HELIOS AIRWAYS
1999: Established as first independent airline in Cyprus
2000: First chartered flight
2001: First scheduled flight
Flies to UK, Strasbourg, Sofia, Athens, Dublin, Warsaw and Prague
Operates four Boeing 737 planes
Police and military helicopters were sent to the scene, with dozens of ambulances also reportedly on their way.
The mayor of Grammaticos, one of the towns near the crash site, said only the tail was recognisable.
"The fuselage has been destroyed. It fell into a chasm and there are pieces. All the residents are here trying to help," George Papageorgiou said.
One eyewitness, Dimitris Karezas, told the Reuters news agency he saw the plane being followed by fighter jets.
"Two, three minutes later I heard a big bang and ever since I've started looking for it, but I have not found anything yet," he said.
Helios Airways was founded in 1999 as Cyprus' first independent airline.
It operates a fleet of Boeing 737 jets between Cyprus and London, Athens, Sofia, Dublin and Strasbourg in France.
very very sad
That is an awful way to go. I've heard that u just fall asleep and die peacefully, but I'm sure the moments leading up to that unconsciousness weren't plesent.
This was on the news last night and it looked horrific,on the whole, I'd rather freeze than suffer incineration
I heard the message sent was a hoax.
Its not possible to call on a mobile from a plane so who knows about a text message.I can't imagine how the cousin have felt had he/she recieved the text..how would begin to cope with something so profound
They said on the news the following day that the person who said that recieved the message was arrested and apparently that person just wanted to be popular.
But in addition to that accident another 7 out of 13 Cypriot people died yesterday in Egypt because of a bus accident. They say that the driver was going very fast and he couldn't control the bus during a turn.
I can't believe how two accidents happened in a short period of time.