Helios Airways Flight 522
On August 14, 2005, Helios Airways Flight 522 covered the route between Larnaca International Airport (Cyprus), and Ruzyně International Airport (Prague, Czech Republic), with a stopover in Athens (Greece). The aircraft, a Boeing 737, crashed on a mountain at 09:04 UTC on that day, near Grammatiko, 40 km north of Athens while on approach to Athens airport capital, killing all 115 passengers and 6 crew members on board.[1][2]
 5B-DBY, the Boeing 737-31S involved in the accident | |
| Accident | |
|---|---|
| Date | 14 August 2005 |
| Summary | Crashed following crew incapacitation due to loss of pressurization |
| Site | Grammatiko, Marathon, Greece 38°13.894′N 23°58.214′E / 38.231567°N 23.970233°E |
| Aircraft | |
| Aircraft type | Boeing 737-31S |
| Aircraft name | Olympia |
| Operator | Helios Airways |
| IATA flight No. | ZU522 |
| ICAO flight No. | HCY522 |
| Call sign | HELIOS 522 |
| Registration | 5B-DBY |
| Flight origin | Larnaca International Airport, Larnaca, Cyprus |
| Stopover | Athens International Airport, Greece |
| Destination | Prague Ruzyně Int'l Airport, Prague, Czech Republic |
| Occupants | 121 |
| Passengers | 115 |
| Crew | 6 |
| Fatalities | 121 |
| Survivors | 0 |
It is the deadliest aviation disaster in Greek history.
Flight crew
changeThe flight captain was Hans-Jürgen Merten, a 59-year-old German pilot hired by Helios for the holiday season, who had been flying for 35 years and had a total of 16,900 flight hours, 5,500 of them on Boeing 737s.
The first officer was Pampos Charalambous, a 51-year-old Cypriot pilot who had flown exclusively on Helios for the last five years, accumulating 7,549 flight hours throughout his career, 3,991 of them on the Boeing 737.
Chronology
change | |
| Date: 14 August 2005 All times Eastern European Summer Time (EEST) (UTC + 3) in 24 h format | |
| Time | Event |
|---|---|
| 09:00 | Scheduled departure |
| 09:07 | Departs Larnaca International Airport |
| 09:12 | Cabin Altitude Warning sounds at 12,040 feet (3,670 m) |
| 09:14 | Pilots report air conditioning problem |
| 09:20 | Last contact with crew; Altitude is 28,900 feet (8,809 m) |
| 09:23 | Now at 34,000 feet (10,400 m); Probably on autopilot |
| 09:37 | Enters Athens flight information region; Nicosia ATC informs Athens ATC that radio contact has been lost.[3]: 17 Aircraft begins circling Athens on autopilot |
| 10:12–10:50 | No response to radio calls from Athens ATC |
| 10:45 | Scheduled arrival in Athens |
| 10:54 | Athens Joint Rescue Coordination Centre alerted to possible renegade aircraft[3]: 18 |
| 11:05 | Two F-16 fighters depart Nea Anchialos |
| 11:24 | Located by F-16s over Aegean island of Kea |
| 11:32 | Fighters see co-pilot slumped over, cabin oxygen deployed, no signs of terrorism |
| 11:49 | Fighters see an individual in the cockpit, apparently trying to regain control of aircraft |
| 11:50 | Left (#1) engine stops operating, presumably due to fuel depletion |
| 11:54 | CVR records a total of five mayday messages |
| 12:00 | Right (#2) engine stops operating |
| 12:04 | Aircraft crashes in mountains near Grammatiko, Greece |
Passengers
changeThe bodies of 118 people were recovered.[4] The passenger list included 93 adults and 22 children. The passengers comprised 103 Cypriot nationals and 12 Greek nationals.[5]
| Nationality | Passengers | Crew | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cyprus | 103 | 4 | 107 |
| Germany | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Greece | 12 | 1 | 13 |
| Total | 115 | 6 | 121 |
Cause
changeThe cause of the accident was due to the fact that after takeoff, as the aircraft gained altitude, a failure when configuring the pressurization regulator caused the loss of consciousness of both the pilots and the passengers due to hypoxia, turning the aircraft into at that time in a "ghost flight" that was only kept flying by the operation of the autopilot. Finally, already over Greek territory, it hit a hill due to lack of fuel.
Other accidents
changeThe accident was the largest in the history of Greek aviation, along with one of the most serious in August 2005, a dark month for commercial aviation, which also featured, among others, the tragedies of West Caribbean Airways Flight 708 and TANS Perú Flight 204.
References
change- ↑ Ranter, Harro. "ASN Aircraft accident Boeing 737-31S 5B-DBY Grammatikos". aviation-safety.net. Aviation Safety Network. Archived from the original on April 8, 2022. Retrieved May 11, 2022.
- ↑ Ranter, Harro. "Greece air safety profile". aviation-safety.net. Aviation Safety Network. Archived from the original on 25 March 2022. Retrieved May 11, 2022.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 "Aircraft Accident Report: Helios Airways Flight HCY522 at Grammatiko, Greece on 14 August 2005" (PDF). Air Accident Investigation and Aviation Safety Board. 4 October 2006. Archived from the original (PDF) on 25 March 2012. Retrieved May 11, 2022.
- ↑ "Greek "Αεροπορική τραγωδία" Flash.GR" [Greek "Air tragedy" Flash.GR]. flash.gr (in Greek). 2005-08-15. Archived from the original on 2005-08-15. Retrieved 2019-06-15.
- ↑ "Ο κατάλογος των θυμάτων ERT" [The list of ERT victims]. ert.gr (in Greek). [permanent dead link]
Other websites
change
- "Helios Airways". Archived from the original on 13 August 2005.
- Weir, Andrew (Dec 19, 2006). "Behind Closed Doors". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077.
- Aircraft Incident Report of Helios Airways Flight HCY522 at Grammatiko, Greece on 14 August 2005 (published in English, released in November 2006) Archived 5 June 2011 at the Wayback Machine
- Complete report of the official investigation by the Greek air safety investigations committee (published in Greek, released in October 2006). Archived 2007-12-01 at the Wayback Machine