Black box of crashed Cyprus airliner missing recording device, investigator says
By PATRICK QUINN
AP Worldstream; Aug 16, 2005
The search for the causes of a Cypriot airline crash that left all 121
people aboard dead suffered a setback Tuesday when an investigator
said one of the two black boxes _ the cockpit voice recorder _ was
not found intact.
Akrivos Tsolakis, the head of the Greek airline safety committee,
said the device was ejected from its cover when the plane crashed
into a mountainous region north of Athens on Sunday.
“The only fortunate event in the investigation is that we have the
flight data recorder that will be sent at all costs to France for
decoding,” Tsolakis said, adding that the box would be flown to Paris
on Wednesday.
Investigators would be searching for the voice recorder’s
mechanism. American experts were assisting, including a representative
of the plane’s manufacturer, he said.
“It a terrible accident that is indescribable and was unforeseen,”
Tsolakis said. “It is an airplane that is spread out over an area
that covers mountains plains and hills. The pieces are spread out
all over. We have found the basic pieces of the plane.”
Tsolakis also confirmed that the bodies of the Cypriot co-pilot and a
flight attendant were found next to the wreckage of the cockpit. “They
were found very close,” he said, but would not comment further while
the investigation was ongoing.
Athens’ chief coroner Fillipos Koutsaftis said autopsies conducted
on the first six bodies identified showed they had been alive when
the jetliner crashed.
“Our conclusion is they had circulation and were breathing at the
time of death,” Koutsaftis said late Monday.
But he could not rule out that they were unconscious when the Helios
Airways Boeing 737-300, with six crew and 115 passengers, plunged
10,400 meters (34,000 feet) into a mountainous area near the village
of Grammatiko, 25 miles (40 kilometers) north of Athens.
By Tuesday morning, Koutsaftis and his team of coroners had carried
out about 13 autopsies, including a flight attendant, but had released
results only from the first six. They were preparing to examine the
body of co-pilot Pambos Haralambous.
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 for nearly three
hours 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. 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 Boeing 737-300, manufactured in
1998 and operated by Deutsche BA until April 2004, had “no problems
and was serviced just last week.”
Searchers were still 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 German Foreign Ministry spokesman, speaking on condition of anonymity
in line with German practice, identified one pilot as a 58-year-old
German but would not give his full name. There was no immediate
explanation for the age discrepancy. 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 neighborhood near
the Schoenefeld airport. The name on the mailbox said Merten. Neighbors
said his first name was Hans-Juergen and said he was a pilot in his
50s, but gave no 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 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.