The haunting words of a fighter pilot who witnessed a plane crash into the mountainside have emerged online once again.
In August 2005, Greece was struck by tragedy when Helios Airways Flight 522 crashed into a mountainside just north of Athens, claiming the lives of 115 passengers and six crew members on board.
The plane took off from Larnaca in Cyprus shortly after 9 a.m. on August 14, heading to Prague with a brief stopover in Athens.
However, ground crews in the Greek capital were left perplexed when their radio calls to Flight 522 went unanswered. The aircraft’s last communication occurred shortly after its departure from Larnaca airport, when the pilots reported an air conditioning warning to ground staff.
Fighter jets were subsequently scrambled after air traffic control staff failed to establish contact with the pilots, raising concerns of a possible hijacking or terrorism incident.
However, what they discovered was arguably even more chilling.
After locating Flight 522 circling aimlessly above Athens, fighter pilots observed the first officer slumped over in his seat at the controls, while the captain’s seat remained empty. Inside the cabin, passengers were unconscious, even though oxygen masks hung in front of them.
The fighter jet pilots felt powerless as they watched the ‘ghost flight’ drift aimlessly in the sky, fully aware of the impending disaster that awaited.
All passengers and crew on board the flight were alive but unconscious, except for flight attendant Andreas Prodromou, who was awake and desperately trying to steer the plane to safety. Although he was a qualified pilot, Prodromou had no experience flying the Boeing 737-31S and was unable to avert the flight’s tragic final destination.
Just under three hours after takeoff, Flight 522 experienced engine failures within a span of ten minutes. Prodromou weakly gestured toward the fighter pilots, who could only watch helplessly as the aircraft crashed into a hillside near the village of Grammatiko.
The heart-wrenching words of one of the fighter pilots who witnessed the crash would later resurface online.
In the audio recording between the pilot and the crew on the ground, the pilot is heard urgently declaring, “Mayday, mayday. Mambo, we have a civilian plane crash. We have a civilian plane crash. Mayday, mayday.”
“Mayday, mayday. Athens, the civilian plane has crashed into a mountain peak.”
An investigation into the crash later revealed that the tragic incident was caused by a loss of cabin pressure, which led to all those onboard experiencing the effects of hypoxia.
It was later theorized that the aircraft’s cabin pressurization switch had been left in the ‘manual’ position instead of ‘auto,’ resulting in depressurization as the flight ascended.
In 2007, the families of the victims filed a lawsuit against Boeing, which was eventually settled out of court. Additionally, six former Helios Airways employees were charged with manslaughter by a Greek court in 2008, but the case was ultimately dismissed in 2011.
Helios Airways ceased operations in 2006.
