Ghost Plane: Everyone Unconscious On Helios Airways Flight 522 | Mayday | Wonder

paper was light gold in medieval times [Music] oh no tobacco sugar [Music] that everything we thought we knew about the world might turn out to be completely wrong [Music] high above athens fighter jets track a 737 as it circles the city there's no answer from the passenger plane but there is someone at the controls more than a hundred people are on board everybody's mind was going to hijack for terrorists there is one person moving in the cockpit repeat what happened to the crew and passengers and who is flying the plane here's 5 2 2 do you read over [Music] early morning august the 14th 2005. the cabin crew of helios airways flight 522 are preparing for their trip from the island of cyprus to athens greece sure is a beautiful day maybe i shouldn't have come in andreas pradromu is 25. he isn't supposed to be working today but he's taken the flight to spend some time with his girlfriend who also works for helios it's the sort of day i'd like to be out flying you will andreas prodromo 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 wanted him to stay in the family business we often talked about it we've got company stay warm at the back [Music] in the cockpit the flight crew is occupied with the daily routine of preparing their jet for takeoff right today captain hans merton is an east german a contract pilot hired by helios for the busy holiday season are you almost through his co-pilot is from cyprus pambos haralambus has been working exclusively for helios for the last five years before beginning any flight crews are required to perform dozens of checks on various pieces of on-board equipment it's a routine but necessary procedure doors closed sorry could you store trays with your seat belt helios is a charter airline with low-cost fares to grease it's a summer weekend and the plane is filled with families in all there are 115 passengers on the morning flight if you need any more help let me know we're just about to take off your loafer no frills uh they don't even serve you refreshments during small uh sorts of flights uh but they offer another uh possibility for the budget-minded traveler paros dimitrio and maria riku are traveling to the greek island of patros they've just got engaged they booked they booked this holiday a month or more than a month ago it was like a honeymoon for them [Music] just a few minutes after nine in the morning helios airways flight 522 lifts off into the bright sunshine nicosia area control this is helios 522 request cruising at three four zero helios [Music] minutes into the flight the plane is still climbing towards its cruising altitude suddenly an alarm blares in the cockpit what is it take off config the flight crew is confused the take-off configuration alarm normally only sounds on the ground it tells pilots their jet isn't ready for takeoff the crew doesn't know why it's sounding now uncertain what the problem is the captain radios the helios operations center at larnica airport back in cyprus operations this is flight 522 flight 522 what can i do for you we have a tick off config warning on pardon our take off config warning is on i'm sure it's nothing i'll let you know me level off 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 do not have a master caution i'll get you an engineer five to two 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 light sorry can you repeat while the pilots and ground engineers try to troubleshoot the two alarms most passengers have no idea there's a problem until everyone stay calm and please remain seated everyone please put the oxygen masks 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 a passenger which is five or six rows further up their procedure would be to grab their mask don it and wait for the aircraft to level off or commence with the descent no one in the cabin knows what the problem is they're 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 takeoff configuration warning is on or why their systems are overheating both of my equipment cooling lives are off this is normal can you please confirm your problem but the engineer on the ground is struggling to get a clear picture of what's 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 what's going on there's something wrong with the electrics on 522 i had something to pick up from operations so i was i was there i figured oh not again one of our problems so i left oh good luck 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 helios 522 can you hear me it's less than 30 minutes after takeoff and flight 522 is still on course the plane is high above the mediterranean sea and headed straight towards athens august the 14th 2005 a helios airways 737 with 121 people on board is circling in the sky near athens helios 522 can you hear me shortly after leaving the island of cyprus two different alarms had been triggered on the plane the flight crew was trying to solve the problem with the help of ground engineers but now radio contact with the plane has been lost air traffic control can't get any response from the captain or co-pilot the flight to greece normally takes an hour and a half but the passenger jet has been in the air for over two hours circling in a holding pattern we heard that there was an airplane which was flying into the creek territory and had no no communication everybody's mind was going to hijack or to terrorists more than three million people live in athens a plane slamming into the city could cause an incredible loss of life this is a runaway aircraft it's a possible hijacking or it's a possible terrorist act so let's involve the military the greek air force scrambles two of its most sophisticated fighter jets to investigate the helios play but the pilots aren't getting any response one of the jets flies closer to the cockpit someone is in the co-pilot's seat slumped over the controls but there's no sign of the captain at all the fighter pilot radios air traffic control in athens anthony acc there is one figure in the cockpit of helios 522 it appears non-responsive athletic acc checking the camera [Music] he can see passengers in their seats but none of them reacts to the presence of the jet then the pilot sees someone moving in the cockpit control there is one person moving in the cockpit of helios five two two repeat there is one person inside the cockpit helios five two two do you read over helios five the f-16s continue shadowing the jet but there's no response at all from the cockpit one of them was actually in a shooting position behind the 737 the other one was nearby the cockpit and he was trying to communicate visually with the person in the cup suddenly the 737 turns left and begins to quickly descend after the acc turning sharply down from more than 10 000 meters the plane drops towards the ground there is no structural failure there is no fire there is no problem of this problem from the external view with the plane helios in yours then 2100 meters above the ground the person in the captain's seat acknowledges the fighter jet for the very first time [Music] but no words are exchanged neither the fighter pilot nor local air traffic control can make radio contact with the jet just after 12 o'clock almost three hours after it took off from the island of cyprus helios flight 522 slams into the ground [Music] saturday acc helios 522 is down repeat helios 522 is down on gramatico hills over fire and rescue workers rush to the crash site there are no survivors [Music] flight attendant lazaros temezian is stunned by what he hears at the company's operations center it was the most chaotic uh scene i've ever seen [Music] when i went back our operations controller said that he'd lost the aircraft and his eyes he's starting to cry helios is a small company with just three jets members of the cabin crew have been working together for years for paul simeon ids news of the crash is particularly terrifying he's a flight attendant for the airline and so is his fiancee [Music] i think that must have been the worst 30 minutes of my life following that first image because victoria was flying that morning to glasgow i had every one and his brother every person we knew was calling me up to find out if i'm alive if victoria is alive what happened why it happened at first we said it takes one hour and a half to go to greece so probably it's not that plain and it took about two or three hours later to know that paris and maria was on the plane that crashed andreas pedromo's father didn't know his son had been called to fill in on flight 522. i was told that helios aircraft was lost by radar and air controllers couldn't contact him i got worried i called andreas he always had it all and unfortunately he wouldn't answer after that phone call i felt as if the ground was pulled out from under my feet it's the worst air crash in the history of greece most of the 121 victims are from cyprus the small island nation declares three days of mourning following the crash it's an eerie disaster for over an hour air traffic controllers watched the passenger jet fly in radio silence closer and closer to athens with no idea 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 you know facing this situation which was beyond any any any description i saw a great area in front of me which was burning it was black burning people spread pieces of of the airplane it is a truly nightmarish sight i hope that i never experience it again it was terrible just investigators immediately start looking for the cause of the crash in the early days their efforts take a frustrating turn [Music] they recover the box containing the cockpit voice recorder but the recorder itself has been thrown clear it was difficult for us because we first first found the case of the cvr very badly damaged and we could not find the you know the machine itself investigators need to know what happened to the pilots without the cockpit voice recorder they have little to go on so keep looking let's hope we can find it [Music] bodies recovered from the wreckage are brought to the offices of athens chief coroner autopsies add more mystery to the case everyone on board the plane was alive at the time of the crash episode there were scenarios at the time that they had all died in midair but the truth he had another they did not die from inhaling a toxic substance in the airplane from an explosion these 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 jets circled over athens when investigators find tissue samples in the remains of the cockpit they make a stunning discovery [Music] the person at the controls of the plane when it crashed was flight attendant andreas prodromo 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 several days after finding the outer case of the cockpit voice recorder investigators find the recording itself when chief investigator solace listens to the final moments of the flight it answers a vital question this was no terrorist act flight five two two prodroma was calling for help [Music] solace here's five separate maydays on the tape even though none of them were heard by the air traffic controllers from the first moment that they saw someone in the cockpit believe me i was certain it was andreas in fact prodromu had his commercial pilot's license it was the first step towards his goal of becoming a captain for helios it's the sort of day i'd like to be out flying oh you will andreas 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 three hours the reason the helios plane seemed to veer away from the f-16s 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 dfdr and cbr gave us absolute proof that 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 three hours but why had the plane flown so much longer than it was supposed to solace now knows who was in the cockpit of the plane and why it crashed but to fully understand the mystery he needs more information [Music] his investigators uncover a suspicious history of maintenance issues with the helios jet issues that could help explain what happened on flight 522 less than a year before the crash the same aircraft had suffered a rapid decompression [Music] lazarus temezian worked on that flight i was in the back of the aircraft at the time there was a loud metallic bang or clanging sound and the oxygen masks dropped in the cabin every step i was taking was difficult it was hard to move uh hard to breathe in fact i was i was starting to pant i was panting for air as the plane began an immediate descent to 3 300 meters all temezian could do was remain strapped in and wait once the plane reached a safe altitude temezian inspected the rear door and was shocked by what he found i noticed that the aft service door was not fully locked the hinges on the top and the bottom of the door were kind of displaced i could pass my hands right through there were no injuries and the plane made an emergency landing and the door was inspected but this wasn't the only problem crews had with this plane we would record faults in the cabin logbook constantly and nothing would be done to rectify even these small little problems in the cabin engineers would take months to rectify even the slightest problem in the cabin there were more recent problems as well a helios ground engineer tells solakis that on the very day of flight 522 the 737 had another problem with its back door when we checked the flight log for the trip we saw that we'd have to do some unscheduled maintenance the plane had arrived in cyprus just after midnight on august the 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's nothing wrong with the seal on the door the engineers run a pressurization test during normal flight a 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 the pressurized airplane essentially is sort of like a pressurized can well we pressurize the airplane so that the people inside can survive the environment that the airplane likes to operate in switching digital pressure control unit from auto to manual without the jets 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's like looking for a leak and a tire in this case what you're having to do is pressurize the aircraft use a barometer essentially to monitor the pressure inside and look for leaks that way but there's no indication any air is escaping through the back door [Music] in this case they've 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 events 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 engineers check the problem when the f-16s 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 is one of the most mysterious air disasters ever [Music] all investigators know for sure is that shortly after takeoff the crews stopped communicating with air traffic controllers then after two and a half 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 stumped 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 takeoff as the plane passed through 3 700 meters an alarm sounded in the cockpit operations this is flight 5-2 over flight 5-2 what can i do for you we have a tick-off config warning on pardon our take off warning is on usually the take-off config warning is only triggered on the runway but 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 solakis focuses on a small control panel found in the wreckage of the ravaged jet [Music] 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 breathe 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 when the pressurization switch is set to manual both the captain and co-pilot are responsible for maintaining the cabin atmosphere using a controller so explain again how you tested the pressure when it went into the cockpit i turned the pressurization switch to manual so lakis learns that during the early morning maintenance check on helios 522 ground engineers had turned the p5 switch to manual that allowed them to use the onboard generators to test the pressure seals on the plane's 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 pressurization system from auto to manual that 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 manually air switches it's bright today are you almost through but neither the pilot nor co-pilot saw it as a result after takeoff the cabin would not pressurize automatically and the higher flight 522 climbed the thinner the atmosphere became not turning the switch back to automatic was a deadly hidden danger [Music] are you sure this is the way it was found it hasn't been moved at all solarcis 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's right he takes an unusual step four months after the disaster he takes an olympic airline 737 on the same route flown by the helios jet if he's 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 arena reenactment should should be performed of course it's expensive to have a jetliner flying for three or four hours but it is worth it if you you have to come with some results which uh benefit to the overall investigation [Music] make sure the p5 is set to manual it's hard to see in the cockpit selakis has the crew turn the pressurization switch to manual a green light indicates it's no longer on automatic but in the bright glare of an early morning departure the light is hard to see as the reenactment flight climbs oxygen is thinning quickly in the aircraft the same thing happened on the helios flight triggering an alarm but is it the takeoff config warning the alarm sounded and that alarm was misinterpreted most of flight crew they will never face an alarm with no pressurization in all their uh flight career because it's a rare event solace confirms that the alarm went off because of the dangerously low air pressure in the aircraft but he also discovers that the sound itself is identical to the takeoff config warning we have a take off config warning on 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 5 000 meters the plane's master caution light flashed on and stayed on for almost a minute we now have a master caution but once again the pilots misinterpreted the cause of the alarm the master caution light can indicate that the plane 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 alarm about their non-cooling was a side effect of non-pressurization actually it was not really that there was a high temperature inside the uh the avionics bay but it was the sensors that were supposed 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'd start to have where your ears would pop and start feeling pressure in your sinuses as you climb higher you begin to feel almost giddy it's almost like having a couple of drinks of alcohol the dwindling oxygen levels could also help explain some of the crew's bizarre behavior when the ground engineer asked about pressurization can you confirm that the pressurization panel is set to auto captain merton ignores the question and responds with one of his own where are my equipment pulling circuit breakers you really don't notice it at first it it's amazing how subtle it can be in the early phases they'd start feeling dizzy they begin to lose the ability to think coherently in a way it traps you into the situation you can't react to anything eventually you're going to lose consciousness solace believes that the captain may have been checking on the circuit breakers behind his seat when he and the co-pilot 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 can you hear me 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 would they have realized that a limitation of the passenger oxygen system had sealed the fate of everyone in the cabin passenger masks are supplied by a chemical generator above their seats but the generators only produce enough oxygen to last about 12 minutes well the problem with the passenger masks is for one thing they're not designed to keep you oxygenated at a high altitude what they're designed to do is give you enough oxygen so that you can survive until you can the pilots get the airplane down to a low altitude in almost every event where we've had a decompression that's 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 34 000 feet you're talking useful consciousness of 30 to 60 seconds most of the people once the hypoxia begins to cause them to lose consciousness they're just going to 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 put the jet in a holding pattern as it flew over the airport exactly the same thing will happen on the reconstruction flight if cabin pressure isn't restored so lakis asks the co-pilot to reset the p5 panel to auto before the jet continues to climb to its cruising altitude of just over 10 000 meters then as it approaches athens selakis also has an f-16 shadow the jet performing the recreation he wants to confirm that it was andreas prodromo at the controls of flight 522 when it went down we dressed one of our guys with the uniform of the steward and he came in he sat on the on the captain's chair and the f-16 was looking at him he was confirming that it was exactly what he saw on the accident plane the reconstruction also answers another question about the tragic fate of helios flight 522 the cockpit voice recorder picked up several strange noises they're heard just before prodromo enters the cockpit so lakas confirms that these sounds were made by prodromu using the electronic keypad to unlock the cockpit door we confirmed all those items and and during the enactment client flight that it was very very useful it filled a lot of gaps we had okay take it down for chief investigator zolakis the reenactment flight has been convincing there was no dramatic cabin failure instead a series of small mistakes and misunderstandings had led to the worst air disaster in greek history 15 months after the crash greek authorities released the official report on helios airways flight 522 but mysteries remain what was happening in the cabin while the doomed airplane flew towards athens and why was andreas prodromo the only one conscious at the very end [Music] 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 all 121 people on board where are my equipment cooling circuit breakers 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 prodromus still conscious after almost three hours interviews with helios safety instructors and crew members paint a tragic picture of what may have occurred everyone please put your masks on we're not sure what the trouble is but remain calm and please remain seated prodromu was sitting at the back of the cabin when the oxygen masks fell he would have waited for instructions from the cockpit the flight attendants 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 illios to uh 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 depressurizations the plane descends quickly but as minutes passed on the helios flight the plane continued to climb unsure of what was going on prodromo would have tried to contact the flight crew captain but he gets no response can you give us an update please captain martin with no word from the cockpit he would have soon realized that this was not a typical depressurization when there was no call out from the cockpit then the aircraft didn't start an emergency descent there was absolutely no protocol it would be they would be winging it by now pradromu 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 dropout oxygen 10 percent of those masks are available for the crew in case of a depressurization incident there are extra mass per every seat road taking advantage of the extra passenger masks he could have made his way to the front of the plane a process cabin crew called monkey swinging but if more than 12 minutes had passed his girlfriend and the other flight attendant may have still been in their seats and like the passengers overcome by hypoxia but pradromu was a scuba diver and a former soldier in the cypriot special forces his training may have helped him to stay alert a little longer andreas was not a card he was a brave person fearless but to survive after the passenger oxygen system stopped working he needed another solution the 737 had four portable oxygen bottles each one could last more than an hour all four bottles were found at the crash site three of them appeared to have been used while the f-16 pilot saw prodromo in the cockpit just before the crash it may not have been the first time he had gone in as he did at the end 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 ban on the door and then if no uh 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 co-pilots it's possible prodromo used it to try and revive him you can still revitalize somebody for quite an extended period of time if you get to them before major brain damage is set in and that's somewhat a variable uh situation depending on the person depending on how long they're exposed to a high altitude but if he was in the cockpit earlier why did he leave no one will ever know probably was a little bit disoriented a little bit confused he's 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's a real question after three 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 almost certainly were in an irreversible coma hypoxia is no more painful than falling asleep but for andreas pradromu the flight must have been a nightmare as the f-16s roared 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 prodromo 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 probably because the radio was still tuned to lanika the airport on cyprus where the flight had taken off fighting hypoxia and struggling to control an airplane larger than any he had ever flown prodromo 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 [Music] [Music] um [Music] there are pictures of andreas in cyprus in the cemetery where he and his girlfriend harris are buried side by side [Music] as his father my son is in front of me wherever i go he is always there what's up we will never get over it there are pictures in greece too on the hill north of athens where helios flight 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 world's most bizarre and tragic airline disasters [Music] you [Music] [Music] you

Channel: Wonder

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Keywords: Wonder, wonder channel, survivial videos, survival stories, extreme documentary, mayday air crash investigation, mayday air disaster, air crash investigation, air crash investigation full episodes, air crash documentary, US Air Force Flight IFO-21, Us air force flight, 1996 Croatia USAF CT-43 crash, croatia usaf ct-43 crash, 1996 croatia usaf ct-43 crash, 1996 croatia usaf ct-43 crash air crash investigation, 1996 croatia usaf ct-43 crash victims

Id: p58O-dyddKw

Length: 50min 34sec (3034 seconds)

Published: Thu Oct 21 2021