Greek airline crash story has at least 3 familiar problems

[Informed Citizen]

O.K. First of all, here's a timeline.

10:07 - Control tower at Athens Int. loses radio contact with plane.

10:25 - Greek aviation authorities contact military.

10:30 - Defense minister issues Renegade alert

10:55 - Two F-16's scramble to locate airliner

11:20 - Fighter jets spot airliner, but can't communicate with pilots

Notice that it takes 18 minutes for the aviation authorities to contact the military, and then 25 minutes to scramble jets. It doesn't sound like they were in a hurry.

And then on to the disputed text message.

First we get this story.

<According to Greek TV station Alpha, a passenger sent a SMS to a cousin saying: "We're cold, the pilot is blue. We're going to die. Farewell."> The Daily News in NY had this on the front page.

Then there is today's suggestion that the message was a hoax. I should certainly think so considering that it would be impossible to send a mobile phone text message from 34,000 feet in the air. But the suggestion of a hoax comes in this form.

<It had been widely reported that one of the passengers sent his cousin a text message minutes before the crash, saying the pilots were unconscious and adding: "Farewell, cousin. Here, we're frozen.">

Both messages were placed in quotes when reported and yet they do not match. I would first assume a translation problem, but the messages, while appearing to contain similar information, don't present that info in the same order.

Finally, after having found the flight data recorder, officials claim they can't find the voice recorder. If they don't find it soon, I might actually get paraniod about all of this. But for now, its just an open line of inquiry.

I don't claim to understand any of this. Nor do I claim that these things suggest anything specific. I just wanted to throw this out there for your examination. Maybe someone has further insight on the matter. Of course it was probably just a loss of cabin pressure.

I'd love to see the passenger list.

- I.C.

[rman]

1. it's not that unusual for planes to facilitate mobile phone communications

some even have internet access. they use a satellite uplink.

at what time was the message send?

it seems implausible to me that someone would pull a hoax about something that virtually no-one knows about yet.

[Informed Citizen]

2. Helios?

Sure, but this airline was dinky, and not likely to have the latest communications technology. The message was sent 'a few minutes' before the plane crashed, when it was likely at a fairly high altitude. I agree that its strange to call out a hoax when its this early in the investigation of what happened and how. I'm really curious about why they lost radio contact with the plane. They claim that passengers tried to take control of the plane, but then why couldn't these passengers, and supposedly a flight attendant, re-establish radio contact? The only thing that would make all of this fit together is if the cockpit had a critical loss of pressure that made it impossible to occupy. Then, even the passengers couldn't get in there for too long. But they may have been able to use the radio if even for just a minute. I'm waiting for them to find the voice recorder. That should tell the tale.

- I.C.

[spooked911]

3. Do you have a link for the timeline? Because the article I linked to

said fighters were scrambled within minutes.

Here:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=125&topic_id=52449&mesg_id=52449

[Informed Citizen]

4. Timeline link and update

http://www.eitb24.com/noticia_en.php?id=82454

Also an update:

In follow up reports, it has become clear that there was only one text message, and that it was a hoax. And there is also now a hoax image of the fighter interception.

Evidently the voice data recorder was 'gutted' in the crash, so we can expect the mystery to continue. Flight recorders usually survive crashes, so I'm getting a little suspicious about all these missing and destroyed recorders as of late.

I'm still quite curious as to why radio contact was out for so long when passengers and crew are said to have tried to take control of the plane. And how could we know that. So now the cabin may have decompressed, the oxygen failed, and the radio? They claim the plane checked out in an inspection just the day before. Sounds like a string of coincidental failures. Hmmm....

And who was on the plane? First there were 48 children, and now there are 16? I understand that initial reports can be erroneous, but how much of a mystery is the passenger list?

We also have conflicting reports about the condition of the bodies at the crash site. Some claim that the bodies were frozen solid, while others say this is not the case.

Once again, I'm not sure what all this adds up to, but someone seems to be covering something, and I'm not sure that we will be able to figure out what that is.

- I.C.

[spooked911]

6. Thanks for the link. For some reason the story I read indicated the

fighters were scrambled within minutes of loss of communication. But this timeline indicates it was 48 minutes.


48 minutes seems like a very long time. Way too long. Weird.

[stickdog]

5. This story stinks to high Olympus. (nt)