

Just 5 minutes after take-off, as the aircraft continue ascending, the cabin altitude warning horn sounded at an altitude of 12 040ft. Helios Airways Boeing 737-31S – Image Courtesy of Alan Lebeda Warning Horn Helios flight 522 departed Larnaca International Airport at 06:07 h (UTC). The aircraft was signed off and sent into service for the next flight HCY522 which was scheduled to leave Larnaca International Airport for Prague, the Czech Republic with a stopover at Athens. Upon completion of the test, the pressurisation system was not reset to ‘auto’ To perform this task, the pressurisation system has to be set to ‘manual’. An engineer proceeded to carry out a pressurization leak check. Prior to the flight, an inspection was done due to an issue on the right aft service door that was reported during its previous flight. These are accessible by car and are clearly signposted.The flight path of Helios Airways Flight 522 on 14 August 2005 – Courtesy of Oona Räisänen Maintenance The wreckage of the aircraft was removed from the site and a large cross and a church have been built in the memory of the victims of Helios Airways Flight 522.
#HELIOS FLIGHT 522 SERIES#
Helios Airways flight 522 was featured on the documentary series Air Crash Investigation (or Mayday in some markets) in the episode called Ghost Plane


The chief purser was Louisa Vouteri, 32 years old, a Greek national living in Cyprus. He had accrued 7 549 flight hours during his career. The first officer - Pampos Charalambous, 51 years old, was a Cypriot pilot who flew for Helios for the last five years. He had 16 900 flight hours accumulated during a 35 year old career which included flying for Interflug before 1990. The captain was a 58 years old German contract pilot - Hans Jürgen Merten who had a contract with Helios Airways for the duration of the holiday season. On the day of the fatal flight the aircraft arrived from London Heathrow Airport LHR EGLL at 01.25 AM in the morning and was scheduled to depart Larnaca Airport, Cyprus at 09.00 AM local time for Prague Airport with a stopover at Athens Airport. At the time of the accident Helios Airways had another three leased planes, two Boeing 737-800s and an Airbus A319. Later on 16 April 2004 Helios Airways leased the plane registered it as 5B-DBY and gave the name Olympia to the aircraft. The incident aircraft performed its maiden flight on 29 December 1997 and was operated initially by DBA starting with 1998. It is also the fourth-deadliest crash involving a Boeing 737-300. The aircraft that operated the flight was a Boeing 737-31S. All the 121 people on board (115 passengers and 6 crew) were killed in the crash - this being the deadliest aviation disaster in Greece. The accident was caused by lack of oxygen that incapacitated the crew and passengers, although the airplane kept flying on autopilot and performed holding patterns it eventually run run out of fuel and crashed near Grammatiko just 40 km (25 mi) from Athens. Helios Airways Flight 522 (Flight numbers: HCY 522 or ZU522) was a scheduled passenger flight operated by Helios Airways which crashed into a mountain on the 14 August 2005, just nort of Marathon, Greece while enroute from Larnaca Airport to Prague Airport with scheduled stopover at Athens Airport
