CO poisoning ruled out in plane crash

Elena Becatoros, Athens

Chief Athens coroner Fillipos Koutsaftis said tests were carried out on the remains of the co-pilot, three female flight attendants, an infant and an adult who were on the flight that went down Sunday about 25 miles north of the Greek capital.

More tests were being conducted to determine what could have rendered crew and passengers aboard the Helios Airways Flight ZU522 from Larnaca, Cyprus, unconscious during the flight. The plane was flying on autopilot before crashing.

Mr Koutsaftis said a few more days were needed to run the toxicological tests.

"This was the fastest test and the most secure," he said after meeting Justice Minister Anastasios Papaligouras. "We are still doing tests for other gases, poisons, drugs and alcohol."

Earlier tests showed that at least 26 people on the flight were still alive when it crashed. There has been speculation that an electrical fire or some other cause could have flooded the cabin with carbon monoxide or another gas.

"I don't know and can't rule out" that something else could have been responsible, Mr Koutsaftis said.

Investigators also have been examining whether a sudden decompression sucked oxygen out of the cabin and cockpit, which also would have knocked out those on board.

Greece's deputy fire chief, Andreas Kois, said that missing parts of a voice recorder were found near the burned wreckage.

Investigators already have sent one of the "black boxes" the flight data recorder to France for analysis.

A team of six coroners was conducting toxicology tests on some of the 118 bodies recovered from the crash site. Three bodies are missing.

The coroners said they expected test results to indicate whether those on board the plane had inhaled carbon monoxide.

Autopsy results on 26 bodies identified so far have shown that some passengers and at least four crew members including the co-pilot were alive, but not necessarily conscious, when the plane crashed.

Chief investigator Akrivos Tsolakis told reporters on Thursday that an air traffic control diagram showed the plane flew on automatic pilot to Athens' international airport. But it was flying at 34,000 feet and turned south into a holding pattern over the island of Kea after passing over the airport. More than an hour later, it changed course again and later crashed north of Athens.

"What troubles us is that the automatic pilot was functioning up to a certain point, and then it was disengaged, possibly by human action," Mr Tsolakis said.

The automatic pilot had been programmed to fly the plane to Athens airport, and it was unclear how or why it had been disengaged, he said.