The Ghost Plane: 121 People Silent at 34,000 Feet part 1

On 14th August 2005, a strange and terrifying visitor was circling the skies above Athens, the capital of Greece.

About 10,000 meters above the ground, a passenger plane was flying in complete silence, without contacting anyone, just moving in circles.

The frightening part was that for the last two hours, this plane had not responded to any messages from any control tower.

Fear had spread throughout Athens.

Was this the beginning of a terrorist attack?

Or was it a hijacking incident?

Because of this fear, the Greek Air Force immediately sent its fighter jets after the aircraft.

When the fighter jets came close, they saw a shocking scene inside the plane.

It appeared that the aircraft was completely silent.

No movement. No activity.

All passengers were sitting lifeless in their seats, and no one seemed to be present in the cockpit.

At that moment, the F-16 pilots noticed a man inside the cockpit who clearly did not look like the pilot.

He was moving around, as if searching for something or trying to understand what was happening.

The very next moment, the plane suddenly tilted to one side and began descending rapidly toward the ground.

Just a few minutes later, it crashed into the mountains north of Athens.

In this tragedy, 121 passengers and crew members lost their lives.

But what was the reason behind all this?

Why was there no movement inside the aircraft?

Why were the pilots and crew not responding to any calls?

And what happened after takeoff that led to such a horrifying accident?

This is the story of Helios Flight 52, also remembered as the Ghost Plane.

Welcome once again to ZM TV’s videos.

The Beginning of the Flight

On the morning of 14th August 2005, at Larnaca Airport in Cyprus, 115 passengers and 6 crew members boarded Helios Flight 52.

Their destination was the city of Prague in the Czech Republic, but they had a stopover planned in Athens.

It was summer, and most passengers were traveling from Cyprus for holidays, many of them planning to get off in Athens.

The captain of this flight was a highly experienced man. At the age of 59, he had more than 17,000 flying hours.

The first officer was 51 years old and had also spent 7,500 hours in the air.

Usually, in such accidents, the expertise of the crew is emphasized. But in this case, the story was different.

Both pilots had flown together many times before, and the first officer often complained to friends and family about the captain’s pressure and strict attitude.

The airline was already aware of this issue.

Not only that, the first officer’s training record showed that he had difficulty with checklist procedures — something that later became extremely important.

The Warning Alarm

The aircraft was a 7-year-old Boeing 737-300.

In the cool morning air, the plane took off smoothly from Larnaca Airport without any problems.

As soon as the plane climbed above 10,000 feet, the crew contacted Nicosia Air Traffic Control, and the captain requested permission to fly at an altitude of 34,000 feet, which was granted.

But as soon as the aircraft reached 12,000 feet, an alarm suddenly began sounding in the cockpit.

This was the same alarm that usually sounds on the ground before takeoff if there is a problem in the aircraft’s takeoff configuration.

That is why both pilots were surprised to hear it in the air.

After 90 seconds, the captain contacted the airline’s operations center and informed them about the takeoff configuration warning.

He also said that the ventilation cooling fan lights were off and asked where the circuit breakers were located.

The engineer on the ground replied that those lights should normally be off, and the circuit breaker was located behind the captain’s seat.

When the engineer asked the captain to confirm the issue, the captain replied that it was not off.

This answer confused the engineer.