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121 killed in Cypriot plane crash

AP, Grammatiko
A Cypriot airliner with 121 people on board crashed north of Athens yesterday, and rescuers said they had found no survivors. Reports said the pilots were unconscious when the plane went down, possibly because of a lack of oxygen in the cabin due to decompression.
The Helios Airways flight HCY 522 was headed from Larnaca, Cyprus to Athens International Airport when it crashed at about 12:20 p.m. near the coastal town of Grammatikos, about 25 miles north of the Greek capital.
The Boeing 737 was due to fly onto Prague, Czech Republic after
stopping in Athens.
The cause of the crash was unclear, but first indications were that there was a technical problem possibly decompression or lack of oxygen in the cabin_ and not terrorism.
Sotiris Voutas, the first cousin of a passenger on the plane, told Athens' Alpha television station that he received a text message from his relative on his mobile phone minutes before the crash.
"He told me the pilots were unconscious ... he said: 'Farewell, cousin, here we're frozen."
The only piece of the plane that remained intact was the tail section of the jet and debris was strewn in a
chasm and surrounding hills. Bits of human flesh, clothing, and luggage were scattered around the wreckage, which also started brush fires around the area.
Rescue helicopters flew overhead and firefighting planes swooped low to extinguish some of the fires. Ambulances crowded the roads near the crash site and dark black smoke could be seen rising from various sites around the crash.
"The Helios flight that crashed in the Athens area left Larnaca and was headed for Athens. The exact causes unknown," government spokesman Theodoros Roussopoulos said.
Rescue workers and residents on
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the scene said they had not found any survivors.
"There is wreckage everywhere. I am here, things here are very difficult, they are indescribable," Grammatiko Mayor George Papageorgiou said. "I am looking at back tail. The fuselage has been destroyed. It fell into a chasm and there are pieces. All the residents are here trying to help."
The head of the Greek airline safety committee, Akrivos Tsolakis, described it as the "worst accident we've ever had."
He speculated that there may have been a problem with the cabin pressure.
"There apparently was a lack of oxygen which is usually the case when the cabin is de-pressurised," Tsolakis said.
Two F-16 fighter jets were scrambled shortly after the plane entered Greek air space over the Aegean Sea and did not respond to radio calls. It is standard Greek air force procedure to intercept any aircraft entering the country's airspace that do not respond to radio calls.
Greek radio and television stations reported that the air force pilots saw no movement in the cockpit of the plane before the crash. There were some reports the two pilots seemed to be unconscious.
"The plane crashed around 400 meters (yards) from homes in the area," said Miltiadis Merkouris, a spokesman for the Grammatiko municipality.