2005, Helios 522 stops responding to ATC 20 minutes after takoff.
A maintenance guy forgot to set a pressure test control to automatic, after testing the plane for altitude on the ground. It was left on manual. Pilots set autopilot to 34k and head to Athens.
At about 14k feet a loud pressurization warning sounds, low oxygen. Sadly, it's the exact warning sound of another problem, and the pilot spends time looking for a nonexistent issue as O2 runs out. They never see the pressure control setting.
Two hours later, the plane enters Athens traffic control command still under AP. It can't land, so enters the traffic circle. F16s are scrambled and can visually confirm a dead copilot, no pilot, and lots of dead passengers.
Everyone on board should be dead from hypoxia as the passenger emergency air has only 11 minutes, and deployed 2 hours earlier. Should be.
The F16 pilots suddenly see a guy entering the cockpit, supposedly impossible post 9/11 without pilots permission. He gas a oxygen tank he's breathing from. Then, the left engine flames out. 2 minutes later, the right engine flames out. The plane exits the traffic pattern a flies out of control.
The guy in the pilots seat is cabin crew, a trained pilot and was traveling as a passenger with his girlfriend, another licensed pilot. Speculation is he/they recognized the problem as the passenger masks fell and the plane didn't immediately descend, as is protocol.
No one is sure how they survive by themselves, without enough o2, but both their DNA were in the cockpit after it crashed into a mountain. The F16 pilots know he was trying to save the plane, because he communicated with them using hand signals. They never saw, and no one heard, her in the cockpit. The voice cockpit recorder has his last 30 minutes of speech as he desperately tries to pull up without engines.
He's described as a hero, crashing it away from Athens with no ground casualties. Maybe. Braver than I'll ever be, for sure.
en.wikipedia.org
A maintenance guy forgot to set a pressure test control to automatic, after testing the plane for altitude on the ground. It was left on manual. Pilots set autopilot to 34k and head to Athens.
At about 14k feet a loud pressurization warning sounds, low oxygen. Sadly, it's the exact warning sound of another problem, and the pilot spends time looking for a nonexistent issue as O2 runs out. They never see the pressure control setting.
Two hours later, the plane enters Athens traffic control command still under AP. It can't land, so enters the traffic circle. F16s are scrambled and can visually confirm a dead copilot, no pilot, and lots of dead passengers.
Everyone on board should be dead from hypoxia as the passenger emergency air has only 11 minutes, and deployed 2 hours earlier. Should be.
The F16 pilots suddenly see a guy entering the cockpit, supposedly impossible post 9/11 without pilots permission. He gas a oxygen tank he's breathing from. Then, the left engine flames out. 2 minutes later, the right engine flames out. The plane exits the traffic pattern a flies out of control.
The guy in the pilots seat is cabin crew, a trained pilot and was traveling as a passenger with his girlfriend, another licensed pilot. Speculation is he/they recognized the problem as the passenger masks fell and the plane didn't immediately descend, as is protocol.
No one is sure how they survive by themselves, without enough o2, but both their DNA were in the cockpit after it crashed into a mountain. The F16 pilots know he was trying to save the plane, because he communicated with them using hand signals. They never saw, and no one heard, her in the cockpit. The voice cockpit recorder has his last 30 minutes of speech as he desperately tries to pull up without engines.
He's described as a hero, crashing it away from Athens with no ground casualties. Maybe. Braver than I'll ever be, for sure.
