Helios 737 crashed with student pilot at controls - from Google News

http://www.flightinternational.com/A...+controls.html

I dunno...but this story's hard to believe....

Frankie

After Airport I, II, III etc. etc. everybody knows any crew member with
a few simple directions from the ground can land a passenger jet on a
CVN.

Seriously, the autopsies show the passengers were alive and probably
unconscious so it isn't beyond the possibility that a steward went into
the cabin to ask what was happening and then tried to do something. The
question that needs answering is where was the pilot and what was he
doing.The actual cause of the crash was running out of fuel.

"Frankie" wrote in message
nk.net...
I dunno...but this story's hard to believe....

Frankie

In article 6s7Oe.3982$Hi.3468@trnddc04, "sfb" wrote:

Seriously, the autopsies show the passengers were alive and probably
unconscious so it isn't beyond the possibility that a steward went into
the cabin to ask what was happening and then tried to do something.

Yes, but it seems unlikely that he could (or would) have flown a holding
pattern.

rg

Ron Garret wrote:



Yes, but it seems unlikely that he could (or would) have flown a holding
pattern.

rg

The FMS entered the hold after overflying the destination at altitude.
Sounds like it flew the lateral part of an approach, missed approach and
hold.

Dave

In article . net,
Dave S wrote:

Ron Garret wrote:



Yes, but it seems unlikely that he could (or would) have flown a holding
pattern.

rg

The FMS entered the hold after overflying the destination at altitude.
Sounds like it flew the lateral part of an approach, missed approach and
hold.

Dave

Ah.

rg

On Mon, 22 Aug 2005 02:22:34 GMT, Dave S
wrote:



Ron Garret wrote:



Yes, but it seems unlikely that he could (or would) have flown a holding
pattern.

rg

The FMS entered the hold after overflying the destination at altitude.
Sounds like it flew the lateral part of an approach, missed approach and
hold.

Not that it really matters, but was it a real FMS driven racetrack
holding pattern, or was it just circling over what would have been the
last waypoint loaded up in the plan pre departure? Generally, how
early does one get the STAR (if any), and approach assignment to put
into the box? In this case, how early would they have put it in,
assuming they had enough time/sense to put it in considering the lack
of O2?

Ron Garret wrote:

Yes, but it seems unlikely that he could (or would) have flown a holding
pattern.

The article said the holding pattern was probably flown by the autopilot.

George Patterson
Give a person a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a person to
use the Internet and he won't bother you for weeks.

sfb wrote:
/snip/ The
question that needs answering is where was the pilot and what was he
doing.The actual cause of the crash was running out of fuel.

"Frankie" wrote in message
nk.net...

I dunno...but this story's hard to believe....

Frankie

It does strike me as strange that if the aircraft ran out of fuel, there
was a postcrash fire big enough to need helicopter water drops to stop
it. I can envision small blazes caused by a few gallons of unuseable
fuel, but I gotta wonder...

Scott

Scott Skylane wrote:

It does strike me as strange that if the aircraft ran out of fuel, there
was a postcrash fire big enough to need helicopter water drops to stop
it. I can envision small blazes caused by a few gallons of unuseable
fuel, but I gotta wonder...

Well, the plane went down only a few hours after takeoff. Perhaps there was
plenty of fuel in other tanks if the guy flying it had known how to switch tanks?

George Patterson
Give a person a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a person to
use the Internet and he won't bother you for weeks.