Cypriot airliner carrying 121 crashes near Athens

ATHENS - A Cypriot airliner carrying 121 people crashed north of Athens yesterday after losing contact with air traffic control minutes before it went down.

A Greek police spokeswoman said there were no immediate reports of survivors.

Two Greek F-16 fighter jets were scrambled after the Helios Airways jet, en route from Larnaca in Cyprus to Prague via Athens, lost contact with the control tower at Athens international airport.

One of the F-16 pilots reported that he could not see the captain in the cockpit and his co-pilot appeared to be slumped in his seat, a Defence Ministry official told Reuters.

"I saw the plane coming. I knew it was serious or that it was some kind of VIP because I saw the two fighter jets," said witness Dimitris Karezas, who owns a summer camp in the area.

"Two, three minutes later I heard a big bang and ever since I've started looking for it, but I have not found anything yet," he told reporters.

The plane was carrying 115 passengers and six crew.

Ambulances and firefighters went to the crash site, uninhabited mountainous bushland in the Grammatiko area about 40km north of Athens. Wreckage was spread over a wide area and fire had broken out.

"There is a fire, lots of debris. We're trying to extinguish the fire," regional fire brigade commander Nikos Papamichos told Reuters from the site. "I can't say anything more," he said when asked if there were any survivors.

A witness told state television: "From the way it looks it doesn't seem like there should be survivors." Military helicopters flying overhead reported debris and smoke but no movement on the ground.

Greek TV station Alpha reported that the pilot had sent a message to air traffic controllers saying the plane had a problem with its air conditioning, after which all communication was cut.

As the extent of the disaster became clear, Greek Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis broke off his holiday on the Greek island of Tinos to rush back to Athens.

Several witnesses said they saw the plane flying low over Athens' eastern coastline before disappearing out of sight and seconds later they heard a crash.

"I never saw it slowing down," one witness said on television.

Helios, Cyprus' first private carrier, established in 1999, flies to Dublin, Sofia, Warsaw, Prague, Strasbourg and several British airports using a fleet of Boeing B737 aircraft.

- REUTERS