Dozens of people ‘were still alive before airliner crashed’

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.

Coroner Fillipos Koutsaftis said that co-pilot Pambos Haralambous was alive when the Helios Airways jet crashed Sunday near Grammatiko, 25 miles north of Athens, killing everyone on board.

The pilots of two Greek F-16 fighter jets that intercepted the plane after it lost contact with Greek air traffic controllers reported seeing Haralambous slumped over the controls in the cockpit, apparently unconscious, shortly before the crash.