Out of Oxygen! The Tragic Story of Helios Airways Flight 522 

The Flight Attendant waving and then pointing down had to be one of those moments that would stay in the fighter pilots mind forever.

I remember one day during cabin crew training, where avoiding complacency during performing procedures was also discussed. At some point during Q&A the question about safety was raised. The trainer said "...air travel is very safe. It's the safest way to travel. Statistically it's 1 in 8 million that will die in a plane crash". Well. That '1 in 8 million' was sitting right next to me during training. She died on that fatefull day on Helios flight 522 while on cabin crew duty. I too was cabin crew on Helios. Briefly. To this day I shudder for a moment every time I step on a plane. I knew 7 people on that plane, PAX and crew. The lesson I learned is to never become complacent. Never. Complacency kills. Always follow procedures without fail. Thank you for the video.

What scares me the most after hearing each step in this incident is how many times it was said "And that procedure wasn't followed." Everywhere from the pilots... to the engineers... to the ATC. Wow.

This is easily the most horrific story I've heard on this channel. Something about a plane just auto-piloting and going into a holding pattern with most on board dead or unconscious is just truly upsetting.

I've been reading recently about how Japanese railway staff use a system called "point and call". They are trained to physically point at the thing they're checking, and speak aloud what they're seeing. This system has been proven to reduce cases of checklist items being skipped or misread. Involving more of your senses sort of forces you to pay proper attention, where a quick glance does not. Maybe it should be considered for pilots.

You know what hurts the most about this accident?It was so easy to prevent/avoid.

This is definitely one of the most haunting accidents in aviation, in my opinion. The fact that everyone was dead except for the last flight attendant as they desperately tried to control the plane is just the stuff of nightmares, truly.

Im quite impressed that the aircraft could still fly to its destination, approach, then enter a holding pattern until running out of fuel, all with the pilots incapacitated. Such a tragic accident.

I had a class in aerospace physiology where we went into a room that could be depressurized to simulate air at different altitudes. At "25,000 feet" they had us take off our oxygen masks and do a simple math test. We had the masks off for 2-3 minutes. After a minute, I could not answer the questions correctly and I was writing at a slant. Later, at "35,000 feet", a select few took off their masks. After 30 seconds, their eyes were open, but the were unresponsive. They were told to put their masks back on and one person was fiddling with his, until the instructor rushed over and put it on him. He woke up startled. Based on my experience, nobody, without oxygen, would have been conscious at 34,000 feet for more than a minute.

This was maybe the most tragic of all the airline incidents I've learned about. I appreciate that you handled it with sensitivity and respect, but still managed to be frank about the facts of the case and what we can learn from it.

When I did my Emergency Rotation as a doctor my boss always said one thing, ‘think about the life threatening conditions first and make sure it’s not before considering the friendlier ones’. I’m not a pilot but I’m pretty sure cabin altitude warning horn is more important than take off configuration horn when you are already airborne

Of all the air crash stories I've heard so far, somehow this one really gets to me. Maybe it's the way everyone on board was rendered totally helpless, either because they didn't understand the situation as was the case for the pilots, or because they did understand but were powerless to do anything about it, as may have been the case for some of the passengers and the rest of the crew. That last person left awake must have spent hours trying to break into that cockpit, contacting someone on the ground, fighting the controls, you name it, all while knowing that at the end they were probably the last person on that aircraft who wasn't dead or severely brain damaged. And to then have to signal to a fighter pilot (perhaps the first awake person they saw after a long time - so close yet so far away), that you're probably going to die. Absolutely harrowing.

You brought tears in my eyes and wake all these memories. I do follow you and one I like about you is that you are trying to explain everything down to the detail in a nice way. It took me several months to watch this video. I use to work with Helios and unfortunately I was the guy to dispatch the aircraft on that day. I talked to the crew and passengers during boarding but no one can imagine what was to come. 15 day prior to the accident I flew with this aircraft and this captain from Athens to larnaca and was a perfect flight. Helios was a small airline but it was the first time that I saw that special bond amongst the staff in all departments. I do agree with what you said but you have to take into consideration the Cypriot culture to be able to understand some chain of events in this accident. I always enjoy watching you explain almost everything that has to do with aviation. Thank you and keep up the good work. Marios Chrysostomou

This one hits home in an extreme way. I was actually on a beach very close to the airport when this happened and we saw the aircraft on what I’m now assuming was the way down, not having any idea of what was happening of course as planes flew over all the time. The one thing I keep from all your accident investigation videos is what my father, who was a fighter pilot in the Hellenic Air Force, told me a long time ago. “Failing to go through checklists thoroughly and with focus will always cause disaster, sooner or later. Always remember, aviation checklists are written in blood”.

I wish aviation's zero tolerance approach to safety hazards and accident investigations were used more widely in other industries

A moral of this story… Just because a checklist was uneventful for the first thousand flights doesn’t mean it won’t save your life on the next.

As they say, procedures like these are “written in blood” - they are there because someone has already died because it wasn’t done

I've got my own "switch in the wrong position" story. I was in ground radio in the Air Force 30+ years ago. I got a call at 2AM that there was no tower recorder indicator in the tower console. The tower recorder and the approach recorder were both in the approach facility. I drove to the approach facility, walked in and found the tower recorder in...(you guessed it)..manual. The approach controllers were only on duty until midnight, and there was a checklist that was done that included checking the recorders when their shift was over. They would have been talking to the tower controllers and going through that checklist. They left the recorder in manual and missed that part of the checklist, and then the tower controllers didn't notice they were missing the recorder light on their console until 2 hours later. I was pissed that I had to wake up at 2AM and go fix their screw up and lose hours of sleep, and I let them know it.

I worked with this Captain in a different airline.Its surprising from a procedural point of view because he was very diligent and I remember people always commented that his writing was like a typewriter.However as far as him being difficult to work with,thats an understatement.He also had anger issues.Still this was a shock to learn he was the captain of this flight.God bless them all,may they rest in peace!

This is so sad. One switch left in the wrong position sets in motion a chain of events which leads to incapacitated crew and an eventual crash with no survivors. That's a terrifying thought. My heart goes out to that lone flight attendant who stayed conscious. A chilling case, as usual presented excellently by Mentour. Thanks for your superb videos.

Oh my god. I' m from Greece and I will never never forget that day of August 2005. That day will haunt my entire life. Back then I was 16 years old and i still remember that All Greece and Cyprus was mourning. This incident will never be erased from our hearts. I wish no country live this tragedy, no man feel this heavy mourn. Dear mentor pilot i really appreciate your analysis and your key remarks as an specialized in aircrafts. I think that this flight changed forever the global aviation code. Ηelios was crashed 40chm outside Athens in a mountain called Grammatikos. In this place has erected a monument in memory of the victims. In this monument there are all the photos of the passengers of the fatal flight. This fact is is really creepy and very very touching. Whole families died in this tragic plain mothers and fathers with their little children. 121 passengers and six members of the crew were lost forever. Omg as i write to you tears are rising up to my eyes. For days and days our televisions were showing the debris of the plain, the rescue crews to try to retrieve the bodies from the debris and the huge fire that the fire Department was trying to quench. Oh i remember the black smoke above the sky of Athens....And the tragic families of victims to scream and cry and their deep pain was and still remains unhealed. Only a few bodies were recognized by their relatives in the hospital and the others were recognized by DNA test. After a few years i remember that at the point of they crash they found a nine years old girl's diary that was inside the only one suitcase that were found intact from the crash. It was a black day in the modern Greek and Cyprian history. Dear Mentor pilot you re so right when you re saying that the analysis and the explanation of such tragic accidents must be investigated in order to explain the mistakes that lead into lose of innocent human lives. You re so right when you're saying that the juman genre must learn from its mistake. That not only minimizes but also prevents the future dangers up in the air and also save many many lives. Thank you very much for your enlightening podcast and for your composure and sobriety in this helpful analysis. After all these years now i finally understood what happened back then. Thank you. God bless you and your family.

We had friends in this flight, thank for explaining what happened and caused this, it was chaos at the time.

That day, I was returning from the sea with my children. We were driving up the mountain (Pendeli), when we suddenly saw smoke on the back side. For a moment I thought it was a fire and hurried away, but when we got home we saw on the news what had happened. It was a day of great mourning and sadness for all of us, Cypriots and Greeks.

All the human mistakes aside, we have to appreciate the tremendous failure of the warning system. With all the complicated computers and sensors, the complete failure to deliver a simple message of "low cabin pressure" is impressive.

So, im in the US Air Force and i work a job where we use checklists for EVERYTHING. Even as simple as calling a commander to let him know his airman is passed out drunk in the middle of the road... its all standardized and procedural. Having known many pilots, they too are also following their checklists down to the dot. Ive seen it personally how one overlook on one single word, or trying to do one simple task based on memory can completely jeopardize the mission, the resources and lives. Its crucial, its there for a reason, and as someone else said in these comments, “theyre written in blood”

The plane crashed just some miles north of my summer house. I was 10 years-old at the moment and still remember the whole family watching the news in shock. It was a hot summer day, more than 35 degrees outside and the sky was red that evening. I will never forget the feeling of the atmosphere. Now, 15 years later im training to become a professional pilot. Im in the inital stage and on my flight yesterday i forgot to switch the landing lights on during startup. My instructor told me "remember, helios crashed just because of one knob". I am determined not to ever skip an item in the checklist from now on. We will do our best, to keep aviation the safest industry as our predecessors did. Thank you for the amazing video Peter.

I did not know about the flight attendant waving to the F-16s. I can't imagine what that was like for him or the fighter jet pilots. 😥 Wikipedia says this about him: "However, [Andreas] Prodromou succeeded in banking the plane away from Athens and towards a rural area as the engines flamed out. There were no ground casualties." So he knew the plane was going to crash and one of the final decisions of his life was to make sure it didn't crash into a residential area. He was a hero.

I'd heard this story before (as part of a "ghost ship" summary), and the most chilling part was when the interceptors saw someone alive in the cockpit trying to do something. That there was someone still alive when the plane slammed into the ground. Thanks for the detailed breakdown.

The Flight Channel keeps your attention with a few details and dramatic music, you kept our attention with real images and detailed explanation after detailed explanation that you couldn't stop listening to. An excellent video, sir.

As someone who has had flight anxiety for twenty years, hearing you talking about these incidents has helped a ton. You're able to give a pilot's perspective, explain why these are such unusual incidents, and describe the kinds of steps that have been taken since then that have been implemented into your own training. I hear you tell these stories and I feel safer to fly with each one. We laypeople often hear about these disasters, but we never hear about how seriously the aviation industry takes each and every one, even the ones that seem like they would never happen again. Other things that have been massively helpful were your descriptions of what's happening during takeoff and landing (the sinking feeling always, always freaked me out) and your summarization of the different types of turbulence.

I remember flying in that plane a week prior to that accident . I remember the cabin was so cold and unbearable, eventually we arrived to Athens and all passengers where complaining about the temperature inside the cabin. A week passed and i can still hear all those peoples relatives crying. God bless their souls and give strength to their families.

Cypriot here !! I remember this day, my brother was a flight attendant and last minute they told him that they found another guy to go (Andreas) which was best friends with my brother... i can't forget how much he was crying after the news broke out . What a sad day

A slow depressurization is scary. When I went through military aircrew training we went "up" in a pressure chamber to FL 240 (pressure altitude) in order for us to experience slow depressurization and our own individual symptoms ( mine are tingling lips) so that if we experienced those same symptoms in flight we would hopefully realize what was occurring and initiate the emergency oxygen procedure with the intercom call ... "CREW! OXYGEN OXYGEN OXYGEN!"

I don't know whether anyone else has realised or said this before, but Captain Petter's style of narrations are so calming that his videos are a source of ASMR for me as well. Normally, I watch his videos at night, before sleeping. Despite the videos containing disturbing details of loss of lives & stuff, I always get a good night's sleep, thanks to his reassuring messages & his enchanting style of speaking. 🥰🙂🙏🏻👍🏻👍🏻

I am from Cyprus and it was a big tragety for our country especially for those families.I knew a whole family ,parents and kids that had gone on that ghost flight.From that day i am very afraid whenever i have to fly and always remember .....

I don't know what is worse, being that flight attendant who is one of only a handful of people alive, having to watch people fade away in the cabin, or being one or the F-16 pilots that must watch helplessly as this plane goes down. Honestly, I feel bad for both but especially that cabin crewmember who, once they finally got access to the cockpit, saw the horror of all the flight crew being out of commission, confirming their worst fears, but as a pilot, having a feeling they have somewhat of a chance to get this under control, and then seeing the F-16's and feeling a little reassured... they strap in, put on their mask and headset, they start to assess the situation....and just when they have their bearings, the left engine dies...they scramble to figure out why and while that happens, the right engine dies... and at that point...they know...they know it's over. So, all they can do is gesture to the other pilots watching from the fighter jets... with a simple finger point, that they are going down. The cabin crewmember gives them a final nod and wave goodbye as they prepare themselves for the final few horrifying minutes of their life. Honestly, this situation is why TAGOUT/LOCKOUT exists in so many fields and industries, if a switch or control is moved away from a nominal setting for maintenance, or if that connected circuit or "thing" is being worked on or is not "functioning as expected/normal" due to a temporary configuration, fault or alteration, it must be tagged with a physical tag (and locked with a lock or device that prevents the control from moving/changing when possible) that details: WHO is working on the item, WHY they are working on it, and WHEN the condition change started and when it should be finished. When the engineer or worker is done, they simply ensure the switch/control is set to the nominal setting or prior setting if that is what is required, test to ensure proper operation of control in all positions (in case they fixed one thing but broke another, etc.), and THEN they can remove the tag. For cases where a tag may not work then a clear but simple mark (like grease pen)/a clip/a cover/etc. is used on the switch/control to Indicate it is marked/tagged and that it has been or may at any time be moved away from its current or its default/nominal/operating position, so that the person servicing the system in question can easily see what they've modified and set it all back when done, as well as so any person coming into the environment can see right away what is not set to "default/nominal/operating" and be made aware that it is modified somehow and needs to be checked again before final sign-off on the job. Again, the worker simply removes the tag/mark/clip/cover/etc. once work is completed and after setting all controls back to the way they found them, the person signing off on the work then verifies that all switches and controls are in the correct position/status. Yes, tagout/lockout is annoying to adhere to sometimes, but again this procedure exists because it is proven to save lives and prevent accidents. Sometimes a switch or control is located tens, hundreds, thousands of meters or even thousands of kilometers away from the element being worked on by the engineer/worker, and this tag is essential to preventing injury or death to them by accidental activation or movement of a switch or control surface, it's a way to say "HEY DON'T TOUCH THIS KNOB/SWITCH/ETC! SOMEONE IS WORKING ON THIS CIRCUIT/ELEMENT! DO NOT ALTER UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES!". I have seen or experienced situations where following the tag procedure has saved lives, and unfortunately, I've also seen where failure to follow this simple procedure has cost lives or caused severe injury and/or damage. So, I must wonder, was this procedure followed by the Engineer, I'm guessing not, because he would have remembered to move the switch back to Auto, or the pilots would have seen the tag and double-checked things better, I would hope. So, I wonder if the airline strictly enforces tagout/lockout or something like it, if they didn't then, I hope they do now. Had they have done it then, this shouldn't have happened, but then again, it was just one failed link in the chain of checklists and routines that caused this accident, it was a cumulation of one failure to follow one procedure/protocol after another by one person after another. No amount of checking and rechecking is too much when lives are at stake... This tragedy could have been stopped by a $0.03 clip or cover used on the switch, a $0.02 tag attached to the switch, or even a simple dob with a grease pen to make it standout and known it was changed... If all three were used I guarantee this would have prevented this tragedy...all it would have taken was $0.10 or less and 20-30 seconds for the engineer to affix the cover/clip to the switch and fill out the tag, attach that to the switch... and done. I don't blame the guy solely; it must have been a culture of bad management and safety as well as oversight and training that contributed to this. Glad that changes and updates were made to the instruments as well as the procedures, so long as those poor people's lives weren't in vain. RIP Pax and Crew of 522...

These older videos confirm that you've always made extremely high quality content, even if you've upped your production values since then. Thanks for your thorough and thoughtful work!

Complacency. You read the same list multiple times a day. See the same dials every day. I wouldn’t be surprised if the next to never never saw that dial moved before so when coming up to it in the check list, they look in the dials direction and “check, yup that dial is still there” but don’t really look AT it as such:

That was a superb explanation. The technical stuff combined with the antiquity of this aircraft’s design created the conditions that exposed this crew’s weaknesses. Unfortunately there too many pilots flying who should be doing a different job. I’m talking about the arrogant idiots, the incompetent, the inflexible, those with a personality bypass (and other flaws) and scared pilots. I’ve flown with far too many of these types in both seats. Fortunately they are few in number. I’ll suggest this particular captain was one of those doing the wrong job. I say that not because of what you said but from what two first officers I have flown with told me. They flew several times with this captain and described in detail how he operates. Neither tell a pretty story. My own experience from incident/accident investigation also tells me that there people wholly unsuitable to be anywhere near aircraft. For members of the general public reading my comments may I will tell you that the chance of being flown by two weak pilots being teamed up AND a technical incident occurring pushing this crew beyond their capabilities AND the flight ending unpleasantly is still exceedingly remote.

Muhammad Ali said the moment he became afraid of flying was the first time he saw a cockpit. “When I saw all those controls…buttons, levers, and switches….I thought ‘what if just one thing is off?’”

Stupid bells and whistles. There should be verbal alarms. “Cabin pressure alert!!!”

Unfortunately this happened in my home country and I had a distant relative in that flight. I have learned a lot from your video, thank you.

Dear Mentour Pilot. I worked for 40 years to improve science writing and your videos are exactly the sort of thing I was aiming for. Thank you so much.

I’m so impressed with his ability to remember and relate the incredible amount of detail (seemingly) from memory!!😮

When you mentioned the pilots not using their oxygen masks, that reminded me a Smithsonian video (on another flight, can't remember which one) where the crew became incapacitated because the item was far down in their checklist.

As a nervous flyer, I hate hearing about the accidents but I really DO appreciate understanding just how many things had to go wrong at the same time for it to happen, and I also appreciate hearing how changes are forced to ensure it can't happen again. It doesn't help my irrational fears, but at least I do understand its safe (even if I am still freaking out). I'm the strange person who during a diversion for low fuel was in panic "omg I'm going to have to endure more extra take-offs than planned idk if I can handle this" while I can explain to everyone around me (freaking out about zomg out of gas) why its actually still safe because there are mandatory fuel minimums to safely divert to a safe place and it actually just means they can't continue to the original destination with enough fuel to double-back to the alternate safely.

Every year in August I search for this accident again in memory of those who died that day. The general public and the media in Greece opt to forget the most tragic aeroplane accident in history.

My mental mantra in the hospital lab is "assume sabotage". Settings get changed. Things happen that don't get communicated. Trust that everything is as it should be at your peril.

I was wondering: As a professional pilot, do you frequently go over these reports to learn from mistakes of others as part of your job, or is that just your own curiosity and desire to learn more?

I have never really had a special interest in aviations, but after watching a mentor pilot video I have been hooked and being watching all of them, you explain things so clearly that most everyone can understand. Great job and thank you for the info and awareness!

OK, if "Manual" is not something that should be red lighted, it deferentially should be non-green lighted, because of rare usage. Our brain is trained that green is safe and it also tends to skip things in order to save time and energy, so in this case "manual" should have better be purple or something so eye would catch it.

Bro, every single one of these videos make me feel SAFER about flying. You go through great pains to explain exactly how because of each one of these crashes, that issue can never cause a crash again.

I get having to duplicate alarm sounds due to the sheer amount of things that can cause alarms. But so many other systems in these planes have verbal callouts, i.e. The GPWS, TCAS, etc. Why not have a verbal alarm for a system THIS vital to life and safety?

Worked in the nuclear power industry for 25 years. We train the same; procedures, critical thinking, mind set, safety culture etc. The sad thing is 99% of accidents are preventable. Thanks, great channel!

I remember being on holiday in Athens at the time of this incident, I was 9 years old but remember as if it was yesterday. The whole country was in a state of shock! Such a tragic and horrific incident which occurred due to a series of unfortunate events, each one avoidable with sufficient training and proper communication. It’s a bitter sweet situation that aviation has become a much safer place because of what we have learnt from this. @mentorpilot much appreciated for such a great explanation and fantastic video. I think for those of us especially in aviation can really take note from this.

I've seen pretty much all of these in Air Crash Investigation series of documentaries on National Geographic and/or Discovery, and I must say that your version really ads a lot of new information and critical insight into these accidents. By that I mean the fact that you use the final report along with a lot of technical explanations from your own knowledge and experience as a pilot to make for a comprehensive accident analysis, as opposed to just making a dramatic TV show like Air Crash Investigation docs. Don't get me wrong, I like ACI a lot. But I like yours as well and I'm going to watch all of them because they're really interesting to me as someone who still has hope of becoming a commercial pilot some day in the near future... maybe. Thanks and good job!

I’ve watched either a Mayday or Air Disasters on this one and it’s unsettling but I have to say, if I’m going down, I don’t mind the concept of being unconscious beforehand. The flight attendant is what always gets me. Talk about never stop flying. He was a hero.

Mentour, you did a fantastic job explaining the accident! You showed us how an accident has many layers of failures and how, if not corrected, the failures gain momentum and complexity. Thank you!

The pilot of the fighter said later that the passenger, a flight attendant, made a signal to him indicating that the plane will crash down. Can't imagine what he was going through, how he must felt. Heartbreaking

The info about that consious person has always gave me chills. What that person must've been thinking trying to save himself and everyone on board for 30 minutes with no response back, heartbreaking.

Hey Mentour Pilot. I am from Greece. I remember this flight and this day was a very sad for everyone here. Greeks and Cypriots share same roots and language.(at the Greek side of Cyprus) Most people have family members there. Anyway thanks for the video.

As always from this channel, this was a considered, logical, and dispassionate assessment of what transpired to result in the loss of the this aircraft and everybody on board. The presenter speaks from the perspective of being a professional commercial pilot himself, so he knows his subject intimately. The description of this air disaster is so much better, and far more comprehensive, than some I have seen, including one that appeared to load the blame squarely on the engineer without mentioning the role played by the pilot and first officer. This account gave a much clearer picture, explaining the situation from all angles. As with similar occurrences, the reasons for the disaster are multi-factoral, meaning there is usually more than one cause that led to the tragic outcome. This has to be one of the most fascinating channels I have discovered on You Tube.

This is the second video I have watched about this accident. Being told form a pilot's point of view gave lots of really important and interesting details. Thank you for your take on this!

As an Engineer, I know that "pressurization" is a primary life support system in modern aerospacecraft. So, to look over this in a preflight check is criminally negligent. Due to the probability of loss of life in the event of failure of that system.

That was a good analysis and thanks for the content warnings, I remember the agony of many people over this flight. Another accident I remember over here that you might fight interesting from a human miscommunication perspective was Aerosvit Flight 241. I have read the report and the level of confusion between the flight crew and ATC is baffling to me after some point. At one instance they were heading to the opposite direction and ATC asked them to confirm they had turned to the correct one. The crew was completely lost, yet they answered yes, while the ATC knew they had strayed but didn't tell them. At the trial, ATC personnel was initially given a 5-year sentence. I was wondering about your take on this. Cheers.

25:35 heartbreaking. How did he get into the locked cockpit? Thank you for the respectful discussion Mentor.

I remember this as if it was yesterday... I was sitting on the top floor balcony of our home in St. Lucas, Euboea, when the Helios plane flew directly above me en route to its doom. I remember the two obviously armed F-16s, one flying arrears and slightly to the portside, one impressively near the crew cabin to the starboard. They all flew no higher than 500m above sea level. I was alarmed and reported this to my father, a retired Air Force pilot. He sounded sad when he told me to expect bad news... they came about one hour later.

I have terrible fear of flying, but after watching you explain why how and what in your videos and then I just think of all the lives lost that make it safer for me to fly that’s when I feel safer. RIP to all the lost lives that have made a difference in the aviation industry.

This video series is the aviation equivalent of L.T.C. Rolt's book "Red for Danger - the history of British railway disasters" which is actually a history of the incremental improvement of railway safety devices and measures. Like railway accidents each aviation accident builds up a body of safety knowledge and measures.

Really like how technical your videos are, without that unnecessary buffer and drama discovery makes on their shows. Binge watching!

So brave of the FA trying to level out to reduce impact. I hope the 2 fighter pilots aren't suffering PTSD as that was likely their saddest day flying.

I first heard about this incident on the series MAYDAY years ago. I found that your expert insight on what happened added a lot on what I already knew about it. Great video!

This story is similar to the crash of the private jet carrying professional golfer Payne Stewart and his entourage. 'Ghost planes' are terrifying. This incident is so disturbing that Petter's two beautiful dogs decided to skip this episode.

Heart wrenching, by far the saddest single video on your page Captain

I am wondering why none of the pilots thought of doing something to prevent further issues. One could have put on a mask to still be able to function in the event of pressure loss, or if they thought the takeoff config warning sounded, arrest the climb. They were still in dense enough air. If the takeoff alarm sounded, which can only do that as long as the plane is on the ground, it could have been a short circuit or something like it. That means turning back to land. They had so many clues and chances to fix this and they did nothing at all.

This story has really got me gripped. It's a tragedy that a man with flight experience and love of planes manged to get to the controls but without enough time. Some reports say he managed to steer the plane clear of Athens and avoid further loss of life. It would be great to have some further information on this, in any case he deserves homage for his efforts.

Thank you for this stream. Explaining this must have not been easy especially nearing the end. Please stay healthy and safe 🙏

How horrific to be that last person. Seeing people scared and confused Watching everyone pass out and die also the few you'd try to save too, knowing your next if you dont get more oxygen, finally getting into the cockpit only to realise the pilots were dead too, seeing the fighter pilots knowing they r there to potentially shoot you down, and just when they thought the cabin was the quietest it had ever been it only gets quieter as the fuel runs out and having a front row seat as the ground comes up to meet them. Or maybe im thinking way to much into it

amazing how far you channel has come sine this video. I love the content

This is so heartbreaking. I'm glad most of them were unconscious 😔

these videos are so engaging, I cannot stop watching them!

There could be another factor in all of this: this system was designed for sudden loat of cabin pressure. Or sudden leak of pressure. This crew might have had a prolong exposure to lower and lower oxygen. So by the time the alarm went off they were already effected from long exposure - that why they thought it was a take off warning. Had they known it was cabin pressure problem they would have put on there masked and lowered the altitude. This was a tragic axcident that shouldn't have happened.

You are a star!! I love EVERY SINGLE video! I've been quarantining in BKK and HK for the last 3 weeks, and I have devoured all your videos! I flew for the first time in 1978 on a DC-10, and for many years I have been a fan of aviation. Now, in my fifties, I travel a LOT (since 1995, many times a month) and I am in love with all you narrative! Thank you!!! You say to ask you for questions and or more topics, so here I go! 1) June 27th, 1980, Itavia Flight 870. Everybody in Italy now knows it was hot down by a French Fighter who was trying to shoot down Ghedaffi's plane flying from Tripoli to (I forgot)... Classic case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time... It has been hidden for decades and it basically cost the private company Itavia to go broke... It would have been a crazy diplomatic incident and so it was kept a secret. The story is intriguing (other that so many civilians have lost their lives in a horrendous stall (plane shot, but no explosion) and subsequent free fall from 30'000 ft, straight into the sea...) and it includes findings of a fighter jet in the Mountains of Calabria nearby and all the politics involved at the time... Berlin wall was still up! Cold war was still on... You could make it a wonderful (although terribly dramatic!) story. The Government, for the reasons highlighted above, continued for YEARS to state it was a technical failure... 2) Air France 447, First office Bonin that pulled back and... Nobody in the cockpit found out until to late... So many other similar stories in your feed... Another dramatic one, unfortunately, where you could possibly share your point of view! How can this be avoided in the future? 3) Malaysian airlines flight 370... So many things have been said... Could you give a quick update of what you think really happened? New evidence would suggest that the plane had been circling around KL for a while (making demands? Talking to Malaysian authorities? What?) before heading south into the oblivion... TAK!!! You are the best! :-)

Damn the engineer even asked him to check the switch position. I wonder if they were already passed out before he ever checked it

I'd a pressurisation problem in the past on a maritime patrol aircraft as captain. We were bound to Thulé AFB, and we heard à warning of depressurization that we recognized quickly. We done our ox masks and proceeded to an émergency descent. In fact, one of our outflow valve had frozen due to the very low air température outside, causing à vicious slow depressurization. I remember that we had a senior officer on the jumpseat, no mask for him. I checked him through the descent, he seemed well, but after the recovery at a safe altitude, he said us that he never saw us donning our masks, and excecuting the descent. Example of hypoxia I never was aware of...

I agree with you why you show all the airplane accidents. It is a learning process, not only for pilots but for everybody who uses airplanes as travel mode. Thanks, you make it very clear and even non-pilots can understand what went wrong.

I never cease to be amazed, as well as horrified, by the elementary errors of pilots who are described as 'highly experienced'.

But isn't it obvious, that "do not take off" alarm should sound different from "you're going to choke to death" alarm? Do they really need to reuse sounds on multimillion dollar plane? In my opinion, life critical sound alarm should be unique, in order to prevent any misinterpretations.

What I don't understand is how the cabin crew didn't try anything for hours on end until the very last moment where it was too late.

When I read about this flight the first time it only said the crew had passed out- so I thought all the passengers were sitting there for two hours waiting to crash! I was relieved that they were spared that horror thought it must have been terrifying. I believe that poor, brave man was really unlucky to have survived to try to save the plane. Was it true that he managed to steer the plane away from Athens, preventing civilian casualties?

Change the "Manual" light to red so flight crew are always aware even if it's ok in certain circumstances.

I've now watched all of your aircraft incident videos, and this is the only one that has made me genuinely feel less safe as a traveler. Such a simple thing that killed all these people and it seems the pilot's rhyming the answers to certain checklist items rather than actually checking is a pretty common occurrence we don't hear about because things usually work out okay.

It's sad that one of the Human flaws is the inability to recognize ones own mistakes and those keep compounding into a big ball that roll down the hill 😥

Great work from this channel ❤the guy deserves every award that exist❤

Given the experience of the crew to say the least, their performance was poor. RIP all the victims and heartfelt condolences to those who lost loved ones and friends.

The last moments of the flight attendant trying is one of the saddest things I've ever heard in my life

Wow, the saddest one so far...😪

Such simple oversight leading to such disasters. Sadness has dominated this story of cabin pressure leading to overall hypoxia of souls on board.🕊🌏

Sad or not, how is skipping or forgetting a check list procedure THREE TIMES in anyway excusable?

I've watched most of your videos, but this has to be the most saddening of all. What a nightmare. Thanks for all your work.