Plane chrashed in Greece, unclear circumstances

[mrmitchell]

What was the exact cause of death for passengers for the Learjet that had the depressurization a couple years ago?

Examinations of 20 bodies, including that of a flight attendant, have already indicated they were alive when the plane crashed, an Athens coroner said.

Alive, yes. Conscious?

[Wiglaf]

If shots were fired the voice recorder box would pick that up. They were probably all unconscious indeed.

[KrazyHorse]

Originally posted by mrmitchell
What was the exact cause of death for passengers for the Learjet that had the depressurization a couple years ago?


Alive, yes. Conscious?

Yes, but the question is what mishap at 10000 metres leaves you unconscious but not dead?

[KrazyHorse]

Originally posted by mrmitchell
What was the exact cause of death for passengers for the Learjet that had the depressurization a couple years ago?

Hypoxia.

Low pressure actually sucks oxygen out of your bloodstream through the lungs, killing you quicker than a simple drowning would.

[KrazyHorse]

Hmmm.

Apparently 10000m is just about right to quickly lose consciousness from hypoxia but not die for an hour or two.

http://www.ciwec-clinic.com/altitude/alti2.html

Human bodies have built-in adjustment mechanisms that can optimize performance at higher altitudes. This process is known as acclimatization. The power of acclimatization can be demonstrated by the following example. If a person were transported suddenly to the summit of Mt. Everest (29,128 feet; 8848 meters), the person would lose consciousness in a few minutes, and most likely die within an hour or two due to acute hypoxia. However, over 60 people have climbed to the summit of Mt. Everest without using supplemental oxygen after acclimatizing for many weeks. This fact demonstrates how profound the process of acclimatization can be.

[Dis]

Originally posted by Wiglaf
If shots were fired the voice recorder box would pick that up. They were probably all unconscious indeed.

The voice recorder hasn't been analyzed yet. Or if it has, the results haven't been released to the public. They could cover this up for a while if they wanted.

I'm very curious about this. It's like a mystery story. I'll be following the details of this crash for a while.

Not that I'm glad I'm crashed. But not all crashes are alike. Another plane just crashed in S. America. But that was the failure of 2 engines. Nothing interesting there . This crash is more interesting.

[Dis]

and is suicide common among greeks?

I'm reminded of the Japanese airliner crash where the vertical stabilizer on a passenger jet came off.

Many Japanese killed themselves after the airline was found at fault. It seems they knew about a whistling problem of the tail fin for a while, and no one did anything about it.

And in this case this plane has had problems related to the cabin pressure control. Will the mechanics and engineers kill themselves over it?

[Dis]

http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/europe/08/16/greece.crash/index.html

this talks a little about the "people trying to fly the plane". It has been suggested that it was a flight attendent, and they did find a flight attendant among the wreckage of the cockpit.

[Geronimo]

Originally posted by KrazyHorse


http://www.emedicinehealth.com/articles/26419-2.asp

The telltale cherry red flushing only occurs as a result of the presence of carboxyhemoglobin in the victim from exposure to carbon monoxide. Unusually pronounced (but not cherry red) flushing may also be observed in cyanide poisoning and a few other types of poisoning but not carbon dioxide. Instead, more generic flushing may be observed in situations in which hypoxia has not occured but elevated CO2 are present. This flushing is unrelated to carboxyhemoglobin from CO and tends to not be very pronounced and only occurs if O2 levels remain adequate in the presence of the elevated CO2. In fact flushing observed in cases of CO2 poisoning is not a result of the CO2 but rather the result of compensatory mechanisms reflecting the bodies efforts to eliminate more CO2 and these mechanisms will not give a flushed appearance once hypoxia sets in.

So, if ventilation is poor O2 levels often fall enough that such flushing is not apparent in CO2 poisoning and it becomes totally masked by the resulting cyanotic condition.

Bottom line, carbon monoxide poisoning perfectly masks hypoxia so no cyanosis is evident but CO2 buildup doesn't block the appearance of cyanosis at all. We would only expect the passengers to have a flushed appearance if O2 hypoxia did not occur or if CO poisoning were suspected. If a CO2 buildup is accompanied by hypoxia the cyanotic skin may be evident just as the witnesses in this case observed.

[Dis]

http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/europe/08/22/greece.crash.mayday/index.html

it appears the plane ran out of fuel.

[Chemical Ollie]

it appears the plane ran out of fuel.

Yeah, ghost planes that fly on autopilot eventually do that. But what made it become a ghost plane?

[Dis]

we already know that. depressurization. .

The real mystery is why the plane depressurized, and the pilots weren't able to do anything about it.

[Chemical Ollie]

They haven't found the body of the Chief pilot. Perhaps he opened a hatch and parachuted, explaining it all?

[Dis]

Originally posted by Chemical Ollie
They haven't found the body of the Chief pilot. Perhaps he opened a hatch and parachuted, explaining it all?

maybe.