Helios Airways Flight 522
5B-DBY, the aircraft involved in the accident, at Prague Ruzyně International Airport in March 2005.
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| Accident summary | |
|---|---|
| Date | 14 August 2005 |
| Summary | Lack of cabin pressurization and pilot error, leading to crew incapacitation due to hypoxia, and subsequent fuel exhaustion |
| Site |
Grammatiko, Marathon, Greece 38°13.894′N 23°58.214′E / 38.231567°N 23.970233°ECoordinates: 38°13.894′N 23°58.214′E / 38.231567°N 23.970233°E |
| Passengers | 115 |
| Crew | 6 |
| Fatalities | 121 (all) |
| Survivors | 0 |
| Aircraft type | Boeing 737-31S |
| Aircraft name | Olympia |
| Operator | Helios Airways |
| Registration | 5B-DBY |
| Flight origin | Larnaca International Airport, Larnaca, Cyprus |
| Stopover | Athens International Airport, Athens, Greece |
| Destination | Prague Ruzyně Int'l Airport, Prague, Czech Republic |
Helios Airways Flight 522 was a scheduled Helios Airways passenger flight that crashed into Gramatiko Hill (Greece) on 14 August 2005 at 12:04 pm EEST, north of Marathon and Varnavas, Greece, while flying from Larnaca, Cyprus, to Athens, Greece. A lack of oxygen incapacitated the crew, leading to the aircraft's eventual crash after running out of fuel. Rescue teams located the wreckage near the community of Grammatiko, 40 km (25 mi) from Athens. All 115 passengers and six crew on board the aircraft were killed.
With 121 fatalities, this was the deadliest aviation accident in Greek history. Flight 522's loss marked the 69th crash of a Boeing 737 since it was brought into service in 1968. The crash is the fourth-deadliest involving a 737-300.
The aircraft involved in this incident was first flown on 29 December 1997 and had been operated by DBA in 1998 until it was leased by Helios Airways on 16 April 2004 and nicknamed Olympia, with registration 5B-DBY. Aside from the downed aircraft, the Helios fleet consisted of two leased Boeing 737-800s and an Airbus A319-100 delivered on 14 May 2005. The aircraft had arrived in Larnaca from London Heathrow at 01:25 that morning. The flight was scheduled to leave Larnaca, Cyprus, at 09:00 am local time, and fly to Prague via Athens. The scheduled arrival time in Athens was 10:45 am. Hans-Jürgen Merten, a 58-year-old German contract pilot hired by Helios for the holiday flights, was the captain. He had been flying for 35 years (including for Interflug before 1990) and had accrued 16,900 flight hours. Pampos Charalambous, 51, a Cypriot who flew for Helios, served as the first officer and had worked exclusively for Helios for the last five years. Charalambous had accrued 7,549 flight hours throughout his career. Louisa Vouteri, a 32-year-old Greek national living in Cyprus, replaced a sick colleague as the chief purser.
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