Some passengers could be alive when Boeing-737 crashed

The crash of the Boeing-737, flying from the Cypriot city of Larnaca to Prague via Athens, killed all 115 passengers and six members of the crew

At least several passengers flying on board the Boeing-737 airliner of the private Cypriot airline, Helios Airways, which crashed in Greece on August 14, were alive. The statement was released from Athens chief coroner, Fillipos Koutsaftis, who referred to conclusions of forensic expertise, in which the remnants of six passengers of the crashed jetliner had been analyzed.

Greek pathologists conducted the autopsy of six bodies so far. “Our conclusion is they had circulation and were breathing at the time of death," Koutsaftis said. "I cannot rule out that they were unconscious,” added he.

Koutsaftis also stated that pathologists would conduct the expertise of other passengers' remnants, some of whom had been severely charred, to find out, if any of the passengers were alive, when the jetliner hit the ground.

The crash leaves no survivors - Photo gallery

It was previously reported that the bodies, which had been removed from the crashed liner, were frostbitten. A spokesman for the Defense Ministry of Greece put forward a supposition that it was either the oxygen supply or the air conditioning system, which went out of order and resulted in the depressurization of the cockpit an the saloon. The abruptly dropped pressure on board the airliner killed the pilots and the passengers in mere seconds. Investigators also supposed that the Boeing was flying for about an hour when all the crewmembers were already dead.  

The crash of the Boeing-737, flying from the Cypriot city of Larnaca to Prague via Athens, killed all 115 passengers and six members of the crew. The majority of the victims were citizens of Cyprus.

Relatives of the killed passengers identified the remnants of 24 people from 45 bodies, which had been delivered to one of the morgues in Athens. Specialists categorized those 45 bodies as identifiable, whereas the remnants of 73 other passengers were originally described as unidentifiable, because they had been staying in the middle of raging fire after the air crash. The charred bodies will be identified with the help of DNA analyses; the procedure may take up to 12 days.

Greece is mourning the victims of the Cypriot jetliner today, which crashed about 40 kilometers far from the Greek capital. Flight recorders, which were found on the site of the crash, will be sent to a special center in France. The results are said to be exposed in about ten days.