Over Rodos at about 09:52 the airplane entered the UL995 airway. At 09:37 the 737 entered the Athens FIR but not contact was established with the flight. Because the plane's autopilot was programmed for F元40 the Boeing continued to climb until leveling out at that altitude some 19 minutes after takeoff. The first officer was still in his seat when he also became unconscious. The captain probably became unconscious when he was trying to find the circuit breaker. The crew were not wearing their oxygen masks as their mindset and actions were determined by the preconception that the problems were not related to the lack of cabin pressure.Īs the airplane was still climbing the lack of oxygen seriously impaired the flight crew. The captain got up from his seat to look for the circuit breaker. The circuit breaker was located in a cabinet behind the captain. The radio contact ended as the aircraft climbed through 28 900 ft. The engineer told that they needed to pull the circuit breaker to turn off the alarm. They contacted the Helios´ maintenance base to seek advice. The German captain and the Cypriot co-pilot tried to solve the problem but encountered some problems communicating with each other. Because of a lack of cooling air another alarm activated, indicating a temperature warning for the avionics bay. Then, at 14,000 feet, the oxygen masks automatically deployed and a master caution light illuminated in the cockpit. The crew possibly thought it was an erroneous takeoff configuration warning because the sound is identical. Cabin altitude is usually held around 8,000 feet. This occurred as the 737 passed through an altitude of 10,000 feet. As the airplane climbed over the Mediterranean the cabin altitude alert horn sounded. The flight departed Larnaca at 09:07 for the leg to Athens with a planned flying time of 1 hour and 23 minutes. In the morning the 737 was to operate Flight 522 from Larnaca to Prague, Czech Republic with an intermediate stop at Athens, Greece. The PMS mode was apparently not noted during the pre-departure checks by the crew. The outflow valves were one-third in the open position which meant that the cabin would not pressurize after takeoff. In manual mode the crew had to manually open or close the outflow valves in order to control the cabin pressure. The pressurization system was checked, but after completion of the tests the Pressurization Mode Selector (PMS) was reportedly left in the "Manual" position instead of the "Auto" mode. Helios' Boeing 737-300 5B-DBY underwent maintenance on the night prior to the accident. Accident investigation report completed and information capturedĢ km (1.3 mls) from Grammatikos ( Greece)Īthens-Elefthérios Venizélos International Airport (ATH/LGAV), Greece
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