THE co-pilot and a flight attendant were among dozens of people still alive when a Cypriot airliner plunged into the mountains north of Athens, deepening the mystery over what incapacitated the flight carrying 121 people.

BLACKENED bodies, tattered luggage and smouldering debris lay scattered among the pine trees in a scenic Greek valley after the Helios Airways flight slammed into a mountainside and filled the air with acrid smoke.

GRIEVING relatives, many black-clad and weeping, arrived at a central Athens morgue yesterday to identify the remains of some of the 121 people - including 10 families - killed in Greece’s worst plane crash.

POLICE in Cyprus raided the offices of Helios Airways in the city of Larnaca yesterday, a day after one of the company’s passenger jets slammed into a mountainside near Athens, killing all 121 people on board.

Grieving relatives, many black-clad and weeping, arrived at a central Athens morgue today by bus, taxi or on foot to try to identify the remains of some of the 121 people – including 10 families – killed in Greece’s worst plane crash.

Two black-box recorders from the Cypriot airliner that crashed outside Athens will be sent to France for expert examination, officials said today, to determine why the plane went down – possibly with all 121 on board already dead.

Greece’s worst plane crash, in which 121 people died yesterday, appeared to have been caused by a sudden drop in oxygen.

Blackened bodies, tattered luggage and smouldering debris lay scattered among the pine trees in a scenic Greek valley today after a Helios Airways flight slammed into a mountainside and filled the air with acrid smoke.

A Cypriot airliner ploughed into a hill north of Athens today, killing all 121 people on board, Greek officials said.