Voice recorder delivers new pieces to crash puzzle
GREEK authorities yesterday announced they had recovered the cockpit voice recorder (CVR) of the Helios Airways Boeing, which crashed near Athens on Sunday killing everyone on board.
At the same time the results of the toxicological tests on six victims of the fatal flight showed no dangerous levels of carbon monoxide in their blood.
The coroners’ findings seem to eliminate the possibility of carbon monoxide incapacitating those aboard.
Flight ZU522 crashed at around 12pm some 40 km north of Athens, killing all 115 passengers and six crew.
The flight took off from Larnaca and was destined for Prague with a stopover in Athens.
Reports on Thursday suggested that the Boeing’s (737-300) flight data recorder (‘black box’) showed that the aircraft crashed after it run out of fuel.
Investigators hope that the black box will shed light on why the plane apparently flew to Greece on autopilot.
Answers were also sought concerning the likelihood of the passengers and crew aboard the flight falling unconscious shortly after takeoff from Larnaca.
Greek coroner Phillipos Koutsaftis said yesterday that of the six victims examined, five, including co-pilot Pampos Charalambous, had no signs of carbon monoxide.
Stewardess Charis Charalambous had a minimum level of seven per cent, which was not considered dangerous, the coroner said.
He added that such a level could be detected when a person smoked two to three cigarettes.
Toxicological tests would be carried out on other bodies while tests for other poisonous gases would also be conducted.
At the same time Greek investigators announced the discovery of the cockpit voice recorder, which was located in a ravine south of the spot where the aircraft’s tail was found.
The CVR was due to be transferred to Paris-based Inquiry and Analysis Bureau (BEA), which was also working on the flight data recorder.
Speaking to state radio before the discovery, the head of the investigation Akrivos Tsolakis expressed doubt over what the CVR could tell them about the accident.
“Even if we find it, I’m afraid it would be in a bad condition since the protective shell broke off,” Tsolakis said.
He was quick to add that experts could be able to rescue the recordings but pointed out that there seemed to be no conversations at least for the last 30 minutes.
Tsolakis however was adamant that investigators would finally get to the bottom of the tragedy.
“We’ll reach the truth and let the people know,” he added.
Tsolakis confirmed that they had asked for a recording of the captain’s dialogue with the company just after takeoff from Larnaca when he contacted them to report a problem.
But they were told there was no such recording, the Greek investigator said.
The existence of a problem is further reinforced by reports that the black box had shown that the alarm in Boeing’s cockpit sounded at 9.15am, just before the German captain spoke to the company’s British chief engineer.
The alarm went off when the aircraft was flying at 14,500 feet.
It also transpired that the passenger oxygen masks had been deployed, indicating that the aircraft lost pressure shortly after departure.
According to the reports, the German captain told the chief engineer that he was having problems with the computer cooling system.
The engineer told him to shut it down and switch to the backup system, followed by instructions regarding the location of the switches.
Reports insisted that the two men could not communicate: the engineer’s last words were “word confuse”.
After that the communication was terminated with the engineer asking the captain to put the co-pilot on so that he could speak to a Greek engineer.
But apparently those words never reached the plane, the reports said.
