Air Emergency (2003–…): Season 4, Episode 10 - Ghost Plane - full transcript

Air traffic controllers lose contact to a Cypriot airliner flying towards Athens, Greece. Two F-16s are scrambled to investigate, but the plane soon crashes into a mountain.

High above Athens, Greece,
fighter-jets track a 737 as it circles the city

There is no answer from the passenger-plane...

...but there is someone at the controls.

More than a 100 people are on board

Every-bodies mind was going to high-jack

or terrorists

What has happened to the crew and passengers?

and who is flying the plane?

Brokkenpiloten Seizoen 4 Editie 10

Early morning, August 14th, 2005

The cabin crew of Helios Airways Flight 522
are preparing for their trip



from the island of Cyprus
to Athens, Greece

Andreas Prodromou is 25

He isn't supposed to be working today,

but he's taking the flight to spend some time
with his girlfriend

who also works for Helios

Prodromou is a flight attendant now,
but he has bigger plans

One day he wants to fly for Helios

His dream was to become a professional pilot

Personally,
I want him to stay in the family business

We often talked about this

In the cockpit,

the flight crew is occupied
with the daily routine

of preparing their
jet for take off

Captain Hans Merten is an East-German



a contract pilot,
hired by Helios for the busy holiday-season

'Almost done'

'Nearly'

His copilot is from Cyprus,

Pambus Herelambus has been exclusively
for Helios for the last 5 years

Before beginning any flight,

crews are required to perform
dozens of checks on various pieces

of on-board equipment

It is a routine, but necessary procedure.

Helios is a charter-airline,
of low cost fairs to Greece

It's a summer-weekend

and the plane is filled with families

In all there are 115 passengers
on the morning flight.

They are low fair, low freels

They don't even serve you refreshments
during small flight

but they offer another possibility

for the budget-minded traveller

Just a few minutes after 9:00 AM,

Helios Flight 522 lifts off
into the bright sunshine

This is Helios 522

Request cruising at 34000 ft

Helios 522, you are cleared to climb to 34000 ft

Have a good day

Minutes into the flight,

the plane is still climbing
towards its cruising altitude

Suddenly, an alarm blares in the cockpit

The flight crew is confused

The take-off configuration alarm
normally only sounds on the ground.

It tells pilots that their jet
is not ready for take off

The crew doesn't know
why it is sounding now.

Uncertain what the problem is,

the captain radios the Helios
Operation Centre at Larnaca Airport,

back in Cyprus

"Operations, this is Flight 522, over'

'Flight 522, what can I do for you?'

'we have a take off config warning on

'Pardon'

'Our take off config warning is on'

With the first alarm still beeping in the cockpit,

...things become even more confusing.

Their MASTER CAUTION alarm goes OFF.

It could indicate
that some systems on board are overheating.

'We now have a MASTER CAUTION

'I will give you an engineer,
522, just a minute.

'I find him very hard to understand,
his accent is quite thick

'Flight 522, what can I do for you?'

The ventilation cooling fan lights up

'Sorry, can you repeat?'

While the pilots and ground engineers
try to troubleshoot the 2 alarms

most passengers have no idea there is a problem...

...until...

'Everyone stay calm,

please remain seated'

'Everyone please put the oxygen mask on

completely over your mouth and nose'

The protocol was immediately to secure yourself,

grab an oxygen-mask, stay in your seat

if you can help passengers without getting up,

you could help them (and you should help them)

but you would not risk

the safety of any cabin crew member to go and help
the passenger which is 5 or 6 rows further up.

Their procedure would be
to grab their mask,

and wait for the aircraft to level
off or commence with the descend.

No one in the cabin knows what the problem is

They are waiting for information from the cockpit

The pilots are unaware that
the oxygen-masks in the cabin have dropped.

and they still don't know why
their take off configuration-warning is ON.

or why their systems are overheating

'This is normal'

'Can you please confirm your problem?'

But the engineer on the
ground is struggling

to get a clear picture of what is happening
in the air

'They are not switched off

'Can you confirm that the pressurization panel
is set to AUTO

There are my equipment cooling circuit breakers

'Behind the Captain's seat'

"Can you see them?'

There is something wrong with the electrics on 522

I had something to pick up from operations,
so I was there

I figured: Ow, not again,
one of our problems

so, I left

The problem doesn't seem serious

but as the plane continues to climb,

passengers still haven't received any information
from the cockpit.

'Helios 522, can you see the circuit breakers?'

And now, the engineer on the ground loses contact
with the aircraft.

It is less than 30 minutes after take off

and flight 522 is still on course.

The plane is high above the Mediterranean Sea

and headed straight towards Athens.

August 14th, 2005,

A Helios Airways 737 with 121 people on board

are circling in the sky near Athens

Shortly after leaving
the Island of Cyprus

2 different alarm have been
triggered on the plane

The flight crew is trying to solve the problem
with the help of ground engineers

But now,
radio contact with the plane has been lost.

Air Traffic Control cannot get any response
from the Captain or Copilot

The flight to Greece normally takes an 1,5 hour

but the passengers jet has been in the air
for two hours

circling in a holding pattern.

We hear that there was an airplane
which was flying to the Greek territory

and no communication

Every-bodies mind was going to high jack ...

or to terrorists

More than 3 million people live in Athens,

a plane slamming into the city
could cause an incredible loss of live

This is a runaway aircraft,

It is possibly high-jacked
or a terrorist's attack,

so , let us involve the military

The Greek Air force scrambles
two of its most sophisticated fighter-jets

to investigate the Helios plane.

One of the jets flies closer to the cockpit

Someone is in the Co-pilot's seat,
slummed over the controls.

but there is no sign of the Captain at all.

I can see one figure in the cockpit of Helios 522

It appears not responsive after I 8CY
checking the cabin

He can see passengers in their seats

but none of them react to the presence of the jet.

Then,
the pilot sees someone moving in the cockpit.

At the right control, there is one person moving
in the cockpit of Helios 522

I repeat:

There is one person inside the cockpit

Helios 522, do you read, over

Flight 8CY, 522
this is the radar control

The F16's continue shadowing the jet.

but there is no response at all from the cockpit.

One of them was actually in the shooting position
behind the 737

the other one was nearby the cockpit
and was trying to communicate visually...

...with the person in the cockpit

Suddenly, the 737 turns left
and begins to quickly descend

Helios 522 turning sharply,
following down

From more than 10,000 meters,
the plane drops towards the ground

Then, 2200 meters above the ground,

the person in the Captain's seat
acknowledges the fighter jet

for the very first time.

but no words are exchanged.

Neither the fighter pilot,
nor local Air Traffic Control,

can make radio contact with the jet

Just after 12:00, almost 3 hours
after it took off from the island of Cyprus

Helios Flight 522 ...

...slams into the ground.

'8CC,
Helios 522 is down'

I repeat, Helios 522 is down.

'On Grammatiko hill'

Fire- and rescue workers rush to the crash-site.

There are no survivors.

Flight attendant Lazaros Temetzian

is stunned by what he hears
at the company's Operation Centre.

It was the most chaotic scene I have ever seen

When I went back, our Operation's Controller
said that he had lost the aircraft

and then his eyes

he started to cry.

Helios is a small company
with just 3 jets

Members of the cabin crew
have been working together for years.

For Paul Symeonides
news of the crash is particularly terrifying

He is a flight-attendant for the airline,
and so is his fiancée.

I think it must have been
the worst 30 minutes of my life

following that first image because
Victoria was flying that morning to Glasgow

every person I knew was calling me up

to find out if I am alive,
if Victoria is alive

What happened,
why it happened.

Andreas Prodromou's
father didn't know

his son had been called to fill in on Flight 522

I got worried

I called Andreas' phone

He always had it on

and unfortunately... he wouldn't answer.

After that phone call

I felt as if the ground was pulled out
from under my feet

It is the worst air crash in the history of Greece

Most of the 121 victims are from Cyprus

The small island nation declares
3 days of mourning, following the crash

It is an eerie disaster

For over an hour,

Air traffic Controllers watched the
passengers jet fly in radio silence

closer and closer to Athens

with no idea of what was happening inside the jet.

Now, piece by piece,
investigators are trying to find out.

So, we climbed over the hill and there we were

now facing this situation
which was beyond any description

I saw a great area in front of me
which was burning

It was black, burning,

People spread
pieces of the airplane

Investigators immediately start looking
for the cause of the crash

In the early days,
their efforts take a frustrating turn.

They recover the box, containing the CVR

But the recorder itself has been thrown clear

It was difficult for us because
we first found the case of the CVR.

Very badly damaged

and we couldn't find the machine itself.

Investigators need to know
what happened to the pilots.

Without the CVR,
they have little to go on.

'Keep looking, let's hope we can find it

Bodies, recovered from the wreckage
are brought to the offices of Athens' chief corner

Autopsies add more mystery to the case

Everyone on-board the plane was alive
at the time of the crash

There were scenarios at the time
that they had all died in mid-air

But the truth

They did not die from inhaling a toxic substance
in the airplane

...or from an explosion

The people died on impact

But if the passengers were alive the entire flight

why didn't the pilot of the fighter jet see
any activity inside the cabin?

And who was at the controls
as the jet circled over Athens?

When investigators find tissue samples
in the remains of the cockpit

they make a stunning discovery

The person at the controls of the plane
when it crashed,

was flight attendant Andreas Prodromou,

a last minute addition to the cabin crew

But why was he in the cockpit?

Was he trying to save the plane?

or did he deliberately fly it into the ground?

August, 2005.

The hunt for the cause of a
mysterious airplane crash in Greece

is now focused on finding the
missing Cockpit Voice Recording

Just before the plane went down,
flight attendant Prodromou was seen in the cockpit

but investigators don't know
what he was doing there

Several days after finding
the outer case of the CVR

investigators find the recording itself

When chief-investigator Akrivos Tsolakis listens
to the final moments of the flight

it answers a vital question

This was no terrorist's act

Prodromou was calling for help

Tsolakis hears 5 separate Mayday's on the tape

even though none of them were heard
by Air Traffic Controllers

From the first moment that they saw
someone in the cockpit,

believe me, I was certain it was Andreas

He wasn't a coward

He knew something about planes

and he had the capacity to do something.

In fact,
Prodromou had his commercial pilots license

It was the first step towards his goal
of becoming a captain for Helios.

But all of his training wouldn't have helped
save the jet

When he was seen at the controls,

flight 522 had been in the air for almost 3 hours

And the reason the Helios plane seem to
veer away from the F16's following it

was because its left engine was out of fuel

No matter what caused the alarms to sound

the ultimate reason for the crash was simple

The Flight Data Recorder
and the Cockpit Voice Recorder

gave us absolute proof.

The plane ran out of fuel

and this was the cause of the crash

Scheduled as a 90 minute-flight,

the plane didn't have enough fuel
to stay in the air for over 3 hours

But why had the plane flown so much longer
than it was supposed to?

Tsolakis now knows who was in the cockpit
and why it crashed

But to fully understand the mystery,
he needs more information

His investigators uncover a suspicious history
of maintenance issues with the Helios' jet

Issues that could help explain what happened
on Flight 522

A Helios ground-engineer tells Tsolakis
that on the very day of Flight 522

the 737 had a problem with its back-door

We checked the flight log for the trip

we saw that we had to do some
on schedule maintenance

The plane had arrived in Cyprus,
just after midnight on August, 14th

The cabin crew had heard loud banging noises

and saw ice on the rear service door
during the flight

It was scheduled to take off again
just hours later

Soon after it landed,
engineers began checking the problem

To make sure there is nothing wrong
with the seal on the door,

the engineers run a pressurization-test.

During normal flight,
the plane's engines force air into the cabin.

To ensure
oxygen circulates during the trip,

small valves in the rear allow some of it
to leak out

A pressurized airplane is essentially
is like a pressurized can

We pressurize the airplane

so that the people inside
can survive the environment

where the airplane
likes to operate in

Switching the digital pressure control unit
from AUTO to MANUAL

Without the jet's engines running,

the engineer uses the plane's
auxiliary power unit

to force air into the aircraft.

And the cabin is pressurized for several minutes.

It is like looking for a leak in a tyre

In this case, what you are having to do
is pressurize the aircraft

using a barometer to monitor the pressure inside

and look for leaks that way

But there is no indication any air is escaping
through the back-door

In this case, they felt
that it was all right

and they completed the test

The entire jet seems to be in good working order

After performing a series of additional
routine-maintenance-procedures,

the engineers signed off on their technical log.

Investigators are faced with a dead end.

An explosive decompression could
have explained the tragic event

of Flight 522

If the oxygen had been
suddenly sucked out of the jet

everyone on board could have been overcome

But not only did the engineers check the problem,

when the F16's approach the plane near Athens,

no damage was seen.

There was no indication
that the fuselage was punctured.

Investigators are still struggling
to solve the mystery

What had overcome the passengers and crew
of Helios Flight 522?

and why was one flight attendant
apparently unaffected?

The discovery of one small switch
holds the key...

...to the entire crash.

The crash of Helios Flight 522
was one of the most mysterious air disasters ever

All investigators know for sure,
is that shortly after take off,

the crew stopped communicating
with Air Traffic Controllers

Then, after almost 3 hours in the air,

one of the plane's flight attendants
was seen at the controls.

Eventually the plane ran out of fuel and crashed,

killing 121 people.

But investigators are stunned

They still don't know what had happened
to the plane's Captain

or the rest of the crew

Tell me about what happened the day of the flight

They concentrate on the conversation
between the pilot and the Helios engineer

shortly after take off

As the plane pass through 3700 meters

an alarm sounded in the cockpit

Usually, the take off config warning
is only triggered on the runway

But the wreckage recovered at the crash site

reveals no problems with the plane's flaps,
landing gear

or anything else that could trigger the alarm

So, why had it sounded?

Chief investigator Akrivos Tsolakis
focuses on a small panel,

found in the wreckage of the ravaged jet.

'Are you sure this is the way it was found?'

'It hasn't been moved at all'

We were lucky finding this panel

which had the switch on the
MANUAL position was a major one

The P5 pressurization panel ensures
that passengers have enough air to breath

even at high altitudes.

Normally,
pressurization takes place automatically

As the jet climbs,

its engines force air into the plane
as they power it through the sky

But when the pressurization-switch
is set to MANUAL,

both the Captain and the Co-pilot
are responsible

for maintaining the cabin
atmosphere using the controller

'So, explain again how you tested the pressure'

I went into the cockpit,

I turned the pressurization-switch to MANUAL,

Tsolakis learns that during
the early morning maintenance-check on Helios 522

ground engineers have turned the P5 switch
to MANUAL

That allowed them to use the on-board generators

to test the pressure-seals on the rear-door
without starting the engines

When the test was over,

they didn't turn the switch back to AUTOMATIC

The procedure of pressurizing the aircraft

has to do with setting the
system from AUTO to MANUAL

It was supposed to return the selector
to the AUTO position

Several hours later,
when the flight crew entered the cockpit,

the pressurization-switch was still set to MANUAL

But neither the pilot nor co-pilot saw it

As a result,

after take-off the cabin would
not pressurize automatically

The higher Flight 522 climbed,
the thinner the atmosphere became

Not turning the switch back to AUTO,

was a deadly hidden danger.

Are you sure this is the way it was found?
It hasn't been moved at all?

Tsolakis believes
this panel could be the key to the disaster

Leaving one switch on MANUAL,

could have led to all the other problems
the plane faced

To prove he is right,

he takes an unusual,
potentially dangerous step

Four months after the crash of Helios Flight 522

the search for answers into the disaster
takes a highly unorthodox turn

Chief investigator Akrivos Tsolakis

takes an Olympic Airline 737 on the same route,

flown by the Helios jet.

If he is right about what caused the crash

this plane should react exactly
like the doomed airliner did.

'Are we ready to go?'

When there is a complicated accident like this,

I think the re-enactment should be performed

Of course it is expensive to have a jet liner

flying for 3 or 4 hours.

Make sure that P5 is set to MANUAL

Ah, it is hard to see

In the cockpit,

Tsolakis has the crew turned
the pressurization switch to MANUAL.

A green light indicates it is no longer on AUTO

but in the bright glare
of an early morning departure,

the light is hard to see

As the re-enactment flight climbs

oxygen is thinning quickly in the aircraft

The same thing happened on the Helios flight

triggering an alarm.

'That is it!'

'Take off config warning'

The alarm sounded

and that alarm was miss-interpret

Most of flight crew, they will never face an alarm

with no pressurization
in all their flight-carrier,

because it is a rare event

Tsolakis confirms that the alarm was triggered

because of the dangerously low
air-pressure in the aircraft

But he also discovers that the sound itself,

is identical to the take-off config warning

But even if the flight crew
did misinterpret the first alarm

they still had another chance
to determine what the real problem was

At almost 5000 meters,
the plane's MASTER CAUTION light flashed on

and stayed on for almost a minute

But once again

the pilots misinterpret
the cause of the alarm

The MASTER CAUTION light can indicate

that the plane's systems are overheating

But it can also tell pilots
the oxygen-masks are down

In this case,

it was doing both at the same time.

But since the crew didn't think
they were having pressurization problems

they focused on the plane's cooling systems.

The sensors
that were suppose to measure the temperature

and the pressure in that area

sensed that something was wrong.

On the recreation flight,

investigators monitor instruments
recording the same events

occurring on-board their aircraft

At the same time,

they also begin to feel the effects
of the lack of oxygen

The first feelings you start to have

your ears would pop
and start feeling pressure in you sinuses

As you climb higher you begin to feel almost giddy

It is almost like having a couple
of drinks of alcohol

The doodling oxygen-levels
could also help explain

some of the crew's
bizarre behaviour

When the ground-engineer asked
about pressurization

Captain Merten ignores the question
and responses with one of his own

'Where are my equipment cooling circuit-breakers?'

You really don't notice it at first,

It is amazing how subtle it can be
in the early phases.

It starts feeling dizzy,

They begin to lose the ability to think coherently

In a way, it traps you into the situation

You cannot react anything

Eventually, you are going to lose consciousness

Tsolakis believes

that the captain may have been checking
on the circuit-breakers behind his seat

when he and the copilot finally ran out of air.

and unlike in the cabin,

the oxygen-masks in the cockpit
do not automatically deploy

if the atmosphere begins to thin.

On the other side of the locked cockpit-door,

no-one in the cabin would have known
that the plane was now flying itself

Nor that they have realized that
the limitation of the passenger-oxygen-system

had sealed the fate of everyone in the cabin

The passenger-masks are supplied
by a chemical generator

above their seats

But the generators only produce enough oxygen
to last about 12 minutes

What they are designed to do
is to give you enough oxygen

so that you can survive
until the pilots get the airplane down

to a lower altitude

In almost every event where we had a decompression
that is been perfectly adequate

For those who did put their masks on,

they would have remained conscious
for several minutes

until their oxygen ran out.

Then, they too would have passed out

Once,you get up to 34000 ft

your talk and your useful consciousness
last 30 to 60 seconds

The hypoxia begins to cause losing consciousness

they just go to sleep

Without a flight crew,

Helios 522 would have continued
to Athens on autopilot

When the crew didn't take control,

the autopilot would have then put
the jet in a holding pattern

as it flew over the airport.

To avoid the same happening
on the reconstruction-flight,

Tsolakis restores pressure to the plane.

The reconstruction also answers another question
about the tragic flight

The cockpit Voice Recorder picked up
several strange noises

They are heard,
just before Prodromou enters the cockpit

Tsolakis confirms
that these sounds were made by Prodromou

using the electronic keypad to unlock the door

We confirm all those items

during the re-enactment-flight
and it was very useful

It filled a lot of gaps we had.

"Okay, take it down'

For chief-investigator Tsolakis,

the re-enactment flight has been convincing

There was no dramatic cabin-failure

instead, a series of small
mistakes and miss-understandings

had led to the worst
air disaster in Greek history

15 Months after the crash,

Greek authorities release the official report
on Helios Airways Flight 522

But mysteries remain

What was happening in the cabin
while the doomed airplane flew toward Athens?

And why was Andreas Prodromou the only one,
conscious at the very end?

The crash of Helios Flight 522 was the worst
disaster in the history of Greek aviation

Like many crashes,

it was a fatal combination of mechanical problems
and human error.

The final accident report details
a tragic series of oversights

and false assumptions, made by the flight crew.

Problems that could have been easily prevented,
turned deadly for a 121 people on board.

'Behind the captain's seat, can you see them?'

But what the final report does not do,

is explain what happened in the cabin of the plane

What actions did the flight attendants take?

and why was Andreas Prodromou still conscious
after almost 3 hours?

Interviews with Helios safety-instructors
and crew-members

paint a tragic picture of what may have occurred.

Everyone, please put your mask on,

I am not sure what the trouble is

Remain calm and please remain seated

Prodromou was sitting at the back of the cabin

When the oxygen-masks fell

he would have waited for instructions
from the cockpit

The flight attendant sitting at the front
of the plane would have done the same

But none of them would have waited forever.

We made it an issue at Helios to emphasize

that cabin crew should not entirely
depend on their procedures

but to think on their feet
and to adapt to any impending situation

In most de-pressurization,
the plane descends quickly

but as minutes passed on the Helios flight
the plane continued to climb

Unsure of what was going on,

Prodromou would have tried
to contact the flight crew

Captain Merten

But he gets no response

Can you give us an update, please
Captain Merten

With no word from the cockpit,

he would have soon realized
that this was not a typical de-pressurization.

When there was no call-out from the cockpit,

and the aircraft didn't start
an emergency-descend,

there was absolutely no protocol

They would be winging it

By now, Prodromou must have felt
that something was terribly wrong.

But to find out what the problem was,
he had to leave his seat

The oxygen available on the 737
is of course the drop-out oxygen

10% of those masks are available for the crew
in case of a de-pressurization incident

There were extra masks for every seat-row

Taking advantage of the extra passenger-masks,

he could have made his way
to the front of the plane

A process cabin crew call 'Monkey-swinging'

But if more than 12 minutes have passed,

his girlfriend and the other flight attendant
may have still been in their seats.

and like the passengers overcome by hypoxia

But Prodromou was a scuba-diver

and a former soldier
in the Cypriots special forces.

His training may have helped him
to stay alert a little longer

Andreas was not a coward

He was a brave person, fearless

Brave and very confident

But to survive
after the passenger oxygen system stopped working

he needed another solution

The 737 had 4 portable oxygen bottles

Using them would given him some freedom.

And while the F16 pilots saw Prodromou
in the cockpit just before the crash,

it may not have been the first time
he had gone in.

As he did at the of the flight,

he could have used the security-code
to unlock the door earlier

The procedure would be to enter the flight deck
via the cockpit door

Initially to bang on the door,

and then if no response is forthcoming
to enter the code

and enter the flight deck

during the accident-investigation,

DNA was discovered on an oxygen mask
in the cockpit that matched the copilots

It is possible Prodromou used it
to try and revive him

You can still revitalize somebody

for quite an extended period of time

if he get to him before major brain-damages set in

and that is somewhat variable situation,
depending on the person...

depending on how long they are exposed
to high altitude

But if he was in the cockpit earlier,

why did he leave?

No one will ever know.

Probably he was a little bit disoriented

a little bit confused

He is reacting a lot slower than he normally would

What was his state of mind?
What was his physical condition?

We think that he knew what was really the problem

but is that the real situation?

It is a real question

After 3 hours in the air,

everyone who didn't have bottled oxygen

would have been unconscious

As it approached Athens,
Flight 522 was now a ghost plane.

Most of the victims,

they probably still had heartbeats
when the airplane crashed

but were almost certain in an irreversible coma

Hypoxia is no more painful than falling asleep

but for Andreas Prodromou
the flight must have been a nightmare

As the F16's roar to meet the jet

and with his oxygen running out,

he must have known that he too
was almost out of time

Yet to the very end, he didn't give up

Prodromou made one last attempt to save the plane

When he returns to the cockpit,

the young flight attendant who dreamed
of becoming a pilot

calls for help

But no one can hear him

likely because the radio was still tuned
to Larnaca,

the airport on Cyprus
from where the flight had taken off.

Fighting hypoxia,

and struggling to control an airplane
larger than any he had ever flown

Prodromou was in an impossible situation.

Even if he could have landed the plane,

it was now too late

Flight 522 was out of time.
and fuel

There are pictures of Andreas in Cyprus

in the cemetery where he and his
girlfriend Harris are burred, side by side

As his father, my son is in front of me.

There I go, he is always there

He left a very big gap

we will never get over it.

There are pictures in Greece, too

On the hill,
North of Athens where Helios 522 crashed,

there are faded photographs
of many of those who died.

Bleached by the brilliant Mediterranean sun

they gaze over the rugged, ancient terrain

Silent witnesses to one of the worlds most bizarre
and tragic airline disasters

Narrator:
Stephen Bogaert

Subtitles:
Rein Croonen