Sunday, August 14, 2005

Tragic plane crash

We've been glued to news all day regarding the tragic crash of a Cypriot Boeing 737 that was headed for Athens (and eventually, Prague) from Lanarka, Cyprus. All 121 passengers and crew are dead. The cause of the crash is still mysterious, and the events and news reports make the whole thing seem rather weird. Apparently, something on board(a problem with cabin pressure they are saying now) caused the oxygen masks to deploy. Some are saying the pilot and co-pilot died before the passengers lost consciousness (there was an alleged text message from a passenger to a relative on the ground that said the pilots were dead and they were freezing). The plane did not respond to Athens Control, and thus F-16s were deployed. The plane did not respond to the F-16s, and the pilots of the F-16's reported that they saw one pilot slumped over. The timeline of events is scant and leaves a lot of information to be desired.

It almost seems like an X-file, although I am sure it will all make sense (if such things can ever make sense) as more information comes to light.

My thoughts go out to the families of the people on board this tragic flight.

EDIT: Here is the list with the names of the dead. It is so distressing to see the names and ages, so many so young, and so many families.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

This is absolute terrible news. I came to the States yesterday and when I woke up this morning, I glanced on the internet and saw the headline "Plane Crash in Greece", now I immediately freaked out because two parties from my family were flying back to Greece yesterday after being on vacation. We'd even had an "family joke" about us all traveling on different flights on the same day. I didn't know what time it was either here or in Greece and it was only when I found the plane had come from Cyprus that I actually managed to breath again. I feel so sorry for the victims of this terrible tragedy and for their families. My thoughts are with them at this awful time. I hope they manage to make sense of this soon. Surprisingly enough, I tried to get the story on the American news channels but they all seemed to be reporting 'local non news' if that makes sense. So I managed to link into a site that broadcasts ERTsat TV channel on the internet who all day have been linked up to the news on NET.

melusina said...

Yea, American news channels are very local-centric. Before I moved to Greece I had very little knowledge of the goings-on of the rest of the world. Even CNN and other cable news channels in America are very focused on only U.S. news. Its pretty sad. It was like living in a fishbowl.

This crash is just so heartbreaking. I can't watch the news anymore, after they released the names of the dead. It is too sad.