Greece plane crash

[ianess]

Terrible tragedy but does anyone have any theory as to how an airliner supposedly on autopilot and flying at 34000ft managed to fly into a hillside close to its destination?  It couldn't have run out of fuel, but any speculation invited. Could it have been shot down by the Greek F16s? 

[Hippy]

The F16 pilots reported seeing pilots slumped over controls and on the second pass spotting an unknown person trying to gain control. Possibly this was a passenger. At that height with no oxygen and an unpressurised cabin they would have about 30 seconds tops to do something before losing conciousness. Maybe they disengaged the autopilot and started a dive (best thing to do in the circumstances) but passed out before being able to level out at a lowewer altitude.

[Shipstabber]

It seems now as though the passengers may have frozen to death before the plane crashed.

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/4152806.stm

[MargeB]

I think story originally touted as though hostile involvement was a possibility.

Now it is clear that the plane had prior problems which suggest it was just these catching up with it.

A geezer from 'Flight International' was on, suggesting that normally when there is a sudden drop in pressure the pilots can at least attempt something, and they seem to have done nothing here, which is odd. Black box, analysis soon, so I suppose we'll find out then.

[georgit79]

It is a really odd one. And they have since reported that this particular 737 has had problems with pressure before? Might they have wanted to sort that out before they flew it again?

[OBonio]

Put safety before profits georgit? Proposterous!!

[NapoleonSolo]

I get the feeling the conspiracy theory merchants are going to have a field day

[MargeB]

EasyRPG (TM)

Oops, sorry..

[BigDogsWang]

Similar thing happened to Payne Stewart (pro golfer) a few years back, so it does happen.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2005/08/16/national/w000727D22.DTL

[Alixw]

Having flown on a Helios 737 last month, I'm not surprised something like this happened, I've never been worried about flying before, but i was really nervous when i got on this plane. it seemed so old, everything rattled and in general just didn't feel safe. I just thank god that we were lucky enough for this not to have happened to us, when it so obviously could have!!

[robbieh]

accidents happen