First autopsies show at least 6 people were alive when Cypriot airliner crashed in Greece

AP Worldstream; Aug 15, 2005

PATRICK QUINN

At least half a dozen people aboard a Cypriot plane were alive when
the jetliner carrying 121 people slammed into a hillside north of
Athens, Athens’ chief coroner said Monday after conducting the first
autopsies from the crash.

But Fillipos Koutsaftis could not rule out that the six people were
unconscious when the Helios Airways Boeing 737-300, with six crew
and 115 passengers, plunged 10,400 meters (34,000 feet) Sunday
into a mountainous area near the village of Grammatiko, 25 miles
(40 kilometers) north of Athens. There were no survivors.

“We have performed autopsies on six people. Our conclusion is they had
circulation and were breathing at the time of death,” Koutsaftis said,
but stressed: “I cannot rule out that they were unconscious.”

Investigators, to be joined by U.S. experts, were sending the plane’s
data and cockpit voice recorders to France for expert examinations
that could shed light on what happened.

But the head of the Greek airline safety committee, Akrivos Tsolakis,
said the voice recorder was damaged. “It’s in a bad state and,
possibly, it won’t give us the information we need,” he said.

In Cyprus, police raided the offices of Helios Airways in the coastal
city of Larnaca, near the international airport.

A search warrant was issued “to secure … documents and other evidence
which could be useful for the investigation into possible criminal
acts,” Cyprus’ deputy presidential spokesman Marios Karoyian said.

Investigators also were trying to determine why the pilot was not in
his seat shortly before the crash.

The pilots of two Greek air force F-16 fighter planes scrambled to
intercept the plane after it lost contact with air traffic control
shortly after entering Greek airspace said they saw the co-pilot
slumped over the controls. The pilot did not appear to be in the
cockpit, and oxygen masks were seen dangling in the cabin.

The fighter jet pilots also saw two people possibly trying to take
control of the plane; it was unclear if they were crew members or
passengers.

The plane might have run out of fuel after flying on autopilot,
air force officials said, asking not to be named in line with Greek
practice.

After the crash, authorities said it appeared to have been caused by
a technical failure _ resulting in high-altitude decompression. A
Cypriot transport official had said Sunday the passengers and crew
may have been dead before the plane crashed.

“They had circulation and were breathing _ so they were alive _ but
of course that only concerns the people that have been examined. The
others, according to a preliminary observation, show the same signs,
but the autopsies must be carried out to confirm this,” Koutsaftis
said late Monday outside Athens’ main morgue.

He added that there were “80 passengers who cannot be recognized and
that we are not examining at the moment. We are only talking about
a certain number of people at this point. The tissue examinations
on those who cannot be recognized will help us draw more clear
conclusions.”

Koutsaftis also dismissed reports that those aboard may have frozen
to death.

In a related development, police in northern Greece arrested a
man who claimed to have received a telephone text message from a
passenger. The man _ identified as Nektarios-Sotirios Voutas, 32 _
told Greek television stations that his cousin on board the plane
sent him a cell-phone text message minutes before the crash saying:
“Farewell, cousin, here we’re frozen.”

But authorities determined he was lying, and arrested him on charges
of dissemination of false information.

The airliner’s pilots had reported air conditioning system problems
to Cyprus air traffic control about a half-hour after takeoff.

Searchers still were looking for three bodies, including the plane’s
German pilot, fire officials said. Cypriot authorities identified
him as Marten Hans Jurgen, 50, from Berlin.

A spokesman for the German Foreign Ministry, speaking on condition
of anonymity in line with German practice, identified one of the
pilots as a 58-year-old German but would not give his full name. It
was unclear why there was a discrepancy in his age. Greek and Cypriot
authorities often list surnames before given names, and Hans-Juergen
would likely be the pilot’s first name.

In Berlin, police were guarding the house at the address where
the Cypriot government said the pilot lived _ a gray stucco house
surrounded by a tidy, tree-filled garden in a quiet Berlin neighborhood
near the Schoenefeld airport.

The name on the mailbox said Merten. Neighbors confirmed his first
name was Hans-Juergen and said he was a pilot in his 50s, but refused
to provide any other details.

There were other unanswered questions about the pilot, including how
long he had worked for Helios.

“I don’t remember the exact date of his employment,” Helios General
Manager Andreas Drakos said when asked at a news conference.

A passenger list showed there had been 20 children under the age of
16 on board. At least 10 families with children were among the dead.
The passengers and crew included at least 12 Greeks and the German
pilot, and a four-member family of Armenian origin. The rest were
Cypriot.

The body of the Cypriot co-pilot, Pambos Haralambous, was found in
the cockpit.

The airliner’s pilots had reported air conditioning system problems
to Cyprus air traffic control about a half-hour after takeoff, and
Greek state TV quoted Cyprus’ transport minister as saying the plane
had decompression problems in the past.

But a Helios representative said the plane had “no problems and was
serviced just last week.”

Helios said the Boeing 737-300 was manufactured in 1998 and was
previously operated by Deutsche BA. It entered the Helios fleet in
April 2004, the company said.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress