Originally Posted By: DoubleWasp
Originally Posted By: FowVay
We use these aircraft accidents for human factors training at my job. The Greek carrier was caused by the fuselage outflow valve not being set to 'auto' after an overnight maintenance check. The fuselage never pressurized and therefore the oxygen content inside the cabin was not enough to support life. When the O2 generators ran out of air (about 12 mins) everyone went to sleep and didn't wake up. The pilots have a separate O2 system but apparently never donned the masks.
As for whether a complete stranger to a commercial airliner cockpit could just walk in, sit down, put on a headset and start flying - NO. Possibly for a small general aviation craft but near zero likelihood in a commercial jet.
That's just despicable. 1 moron forgets a valve, and 112 people die?
Never ceases to amaze me how arbitrary flight can be.
Im assuming something went wrong with the oxygen deploy that almost nobody managed to get oxygen before passing out?
Yep. One valve...left open by maintenance...and then a misidentification of the warning, followed by some issues with a language barrier between the crew, since they were from different countries and couldn't effectively communicate about the systems issue when the pressurization failed.
The masks deployed in the back. So, the passengers had oxygen.
Our masks in the cockpit are different, you reach down to grab it and put it on. It's used in flight for several reasons, and they don't just drop like the passenger masks.
But, this crew should be something to consider every time some new discount airline promises that they are using "fully trained and qualified crew", as they operate from a different country, with leases in a second country, and crew sourced from a third country to get around labor laws. This Helios crew was contracted out, outsourced, and did not operate effectively, despite thousands of flight hours.
One switch position.
That's all it takes.
Oh, and did you notice this data point? The Flight Attendant called "Mayday" five times on the radio...but because it was tuned to the air traffic control sector hundreds of miles behind them, ATC never heard the call...