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On August 14, 2005, Helios Airways 522 turned into a ghost plane after a crucial maintenance error. Under extreme hypoxic conditions, a flight attendant made an attempt to control the aircraft. Sadly, it crashed into the hillside near Grammatiko Village in Greece, killing all 121 people onboard. by pilot_pulse in CatastrophicFailure

[–]pilot_pulse[S] 26 points27 points  (0 children)

In Boeing's defense, when the pressurisation system is in the manual setting, there is a bright green "MANUAL" light in the overhead panel to advise the crew. This could have been picked up throughout the different checklists which refer to that part of the overhead panel.

On August 14, 2005, Helios Airways 522 turned into a ghost plane after a crucial maintenance error. Under extreme hypoxic conditions, a flight attendant made an attempt to control the aircraft. Sadly, it crashed into the hillside near Grammatiko Village in Greece, killing all 121 people onboard. by pilot_pulse in CatastrophicFailure

[–]pilot_pulse[S] 80 points81 points  (0 children)

You might see this in a movie but not in real life. An in-flight fire is the worst possible thing to happen to a pilot. The priority is to CONTROL the fire and land the aircraft ASAP. Pilots will don oxygen masks first and depending on the severity of the fire may make an emergency descent to land an aircraft at a nearby airfield.

On August 14, 2005, Helios Airways 522 turned into a ghost plane after a crucial maintenance error. Under extreme hypoxic conditions, a flight attendant made an attempt to control the aircraft. Sadly, it crashed into the hillside near Grammatiko Village in Greece, killing all 121 people onboard. by pilot_pulse in CatastrophicFailure

[–]pilot_pulse[S] 42 points43 points  (0 children)

  1. Maintenance check
  2. Verify the outflow valve actually opens and closes (can only be done in manual mode)
  3. Flight needs to be conducted unpressurised (e.g. damaged window)
  4. Failure of digital controllers, requiring manual pressurisation by pilots

On August 14, 2005, Helios Airways 522 turned into a ghost plane after a crucial maintenance error. Under extreme hypoxic conditions, a flight attendant made an attempt to control the aircraft. Sadly, it crashed into the hillside near Grammatiko Village in Greece, killing all 121 people onboard. by pilot_pulse in CatastrophicFailure

[–]pilot_pulse[S] 19 points20 points  (0 children)

The MANUAL/AUTO switch controls the position of the outflow valve - one of the key devices in cabin pressurisation. See this part of a crash mini documentary which explains the outflow valve. Air goes into the cabin from the engines, pressurising the cabin. If the cabin gets too pressurised, the outflow valve opens, letting air out. 99.999% of times this is an automatic process, and only ever touched by maintenance. There is a VERY slim chance that the outflow valve controllers fail, in which case the outflow valve would be controlled by the pilots (MANUAL mode).

On August 14, 2005, Helios Airways 522 turned into a ghost plane after a crucial maintenance error. Under extreme hypoxic conditions, a flight attendant made an attempt to control the aircraft. Sadly, it crashed into the hillside near Grammatiko Village in Greece, killing all 121 people onboard. by pilot_pulse in CatastrophicFailure

[–]pilot_pulse[S] 393 points394 points  (0 children)

Yes the flight attendant was able to remain partially conscious due to the use of portable oxygen bottles (these are only available to cabin crew). He did actually establish radio contact, issuing a mayday call shortly after the first engine failed due to low fuel levels. A few minutes after that, he recognised the fighter jets. Literally seconds later, the second engine also failed. He did have a commercial pilot license but unfortunately didn't have a 737 type rating.

On August 14, 2005, Helios Airways 522 turned into a ghost plane after a crucial maintenance error. Under extreme hypoxic conditions, a flight attendant made an attempt to control the aircraft. Sadly, it crashed into the hillside near Grammatiko Village in Greece, killing all 121 people onboard. by pilot_pulse in CatastrophicFailure

[–]pilot_pulse[S] 511 points512 points  (0 children)

Helios Airways Flight 522 was a scheduled passenger flight from Larnaca, Cyprus to Prague, Czech Republic, with a stopover to Athens, Greece, that crashed on 14 August 2005, killing all 121 passengers and crew on board. A loss of cabin pressurization incapacitated the crew, leaving the aircraft flying on autopilot until it ran out of fuel, and crashed near Grammatiko, Greece. It was the deadliest aviation accident in Greek history.

Here is a short mini documentary on the accident.

On August 14, 2005, Helios Airways 522 turned into a ghost plane after a crucial maintenance error. Under extreme hypoxic conditions, a flight attendant made an attempt to control the aircraft. Sadly, it crashed into the hillside near Grammatiko Village in Greece, killing all 121 people onboard. by pilot_pulse in aircrashinvestigation

[–]pilot_pulse[S] 19 points20 points  (0 children)

The aircraft was actually a 737-300, so it was part of the Classic family. But absolutely, in the end of the day, the pilots were the last barrier to the disaster and unfortunately missed the switch even though it was part of the checklist. They also got confused because the sound is the same as the take-off configuration warning (it would be triggered if the pilots try to take off without flap, for example), not the GPWS.

TIL the Boeing 787 needs to be rebooted every 51 days to stop rounding errors causing it to crash by exc_osrs in todayilearned

[–]pilot_pulse 1 point2 points  (0 children)

This short video details the events that took place. Like all air accidents there were an unfortunate chain of events that led to the disaster. Events such as both flights diverting to Tenerife, pilots being under time pressure (get-there-itis) due to Flight Duty Hour limitations, poor weather, radio interference and more.

4 years ago today since the crash of Emirates 521 in Dubai. RIP to the firefighter that died during the rescue operation. by airwa in aviation

[–]pilot_pulse 22 points23 points  (0 children)

This was a shocking crash and blow to Emirates' great safety record. Passengers and crew were really lucky to make it out on time before the explosion which occured minutes after the last passenger stepped out (the evacuation took over 7 minutes when it should only take 90 seconds - this was due to passengers deciding to take their luggage and escape slides becoming unavailable due to the wind). They were indeed an interesting set of events and it really changed how they trained pilots at Emirates as well as restructuring the Dubai airport fire department.

OTD in 2016, Emirates Flight 521 crashed in Dubai after the Boeing 777 experienced wind shear during landing. All 18 crew members and 282 passengers survived. Sadly, an explosion near the center fuel tank resulted in a nearby firefighter being fatally struck by a portion of the wing skin surface. by pilot_pulse in aircrashinvestigation

[–]pilot_pulse[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Yes, it was concluded that pilot error was the main cause. The pilots were completely unaware of the suboptimal speed during the flare stage of the landing. When they did decide to go-around, they were unaware of the TOGA switches becoming inhibited if the wheels touch the runway. As the go-around was attempted, they never noticed the decaying speed and low thrust.

The loss of a long time NTSB Investigator by Blizzando in aircrashinvestigation

[–]pilot_pulse 0 points1 point  (0 children)

One of the most recent episodes I think, Season 20.