Some Were Alive When Jet Crashed

At least half a dozen people aboard a Cypriot plane were alive when the jetliner carrying 121 people slammed into a hillside north of Athens, Athens' chief coroner said Monday after conducting the first autopsies from the crash.

But Fillipos Koutsaftis could not rule out that the six people were unconscious when the Helios Airways Boeing 737-300, with six crew and 115 passengers, plunged 34,000 feet Sunday into a mountainous area near the village of Grammatiko, 25 miles north of Athens. There were no survivors.

"We have performed autopsies on six people. Our conclusion is they had circulation and were breathing at the time of death," Koutsaftis said, but stressed: "I cannot rule out that they were unconscious."

He added that there were "80 passengers who cannot be recognized and that we are not examining at the moment. We are only talking about a certain number of people at this point. The tissue examinations on those who cannot be recognized will help us draw more clear conclusions."

Investigators, to be joined by U.S. experts, were sending the plane's data and cockpit voice recorders to France for expert examinations that could shed light on what happened.

But the head of the Greek airline safety committee, Akrivos Tsolakis, said the voice recorder was damaged. "It's in a bad state and, possibly, it won't give us the information we need," he said.

In Cyprus, police raided the offices of Helios Airways in the coastal city of Larnaca, near the international airport.

A search warrant was issued "to secure ... documents and other evidence which could be useful for the investigation into possible criminal acts," Cyprus' deputy presidential spokesman Marios Karoyian said.

CBS News Correspondent Mark Phillips reports that records show oxygen masks were deployed during the flight, presumably due to a catastrophic loss of pressure and temperature during the plane's drop in altitude.

This is called high-altitude decompression, authorities say. And, as Phillips reports, a contaminated oxygen supply could have knocked out the crew, which would cause the plane to go on autopilot.

Reports from two fighter jets that were deployed when radio contact with the flight was lost en route to Athens from Cypress said the co-pilot appeared to be slumped on his seat.

Relatives of the dead, meanwhile, began to gather in Athens at a central morgue to identify their remains. Greek deputy Health Minister Giorgos Constantopoulos said there had been 21 children on board Helios Airways flight ZU522 from Cyprus to Athens, "all aged 4 and above." Greek and Cypriot officials had originally said there were 48 children on the plane.

No explanation for the discrepancy was given.

In a related development, police in northern Greece arrested a man who claimed to have received a telephone text message from a passenger. The man — identified as Nektarios-Sotirios Voutas, 32 — told Greek television stations that his cousin on board the plane sent him a cell-phone text message minutes before the crash saying: "Farewell, cousin, here we're frozen."

But authorities determined he was lying, and arrested him on charges of dissemination of false information.

In Cyprus, the pilots and crew of Helios Airways refused to fly Monday after reports that passengers had complained that the Helios Boeing 737 that crashed near Athens had experienced past technical problems. The company would not say why its crews were refusing to fly.

Alternative reports Monday say Helios Airways has voluntarily grounded all of its flights.

Greek state television had quoted the Cyprus transport minister as saying the plane had decompression problems in the past. But a Helios representative said the plane had "no problems and was serviced just last week."

The Boeing 737 had been headed from Larnaca, Cyprus, to Athens International Airport when it crashed at 12:05 p.m. Sunday near Grammatiko.

The pilots of the airliner had reported air-conditioning system problems to Cyprus air traffic control about a half-hour after takeoff. Within minutes, after entering Greek air space over the Aegean, the Boeing 737 lost all radio contact. Two Greek F-16 fighter jets were dispatched soon afterward.

When the F-16s intercepted the plane at 34,000 feet, jet pilots could see the co-pilot slumped over his seat. The captain was not in the cockpit, and oxygen masks dangled inside the cabin, government spokesman Theodoros Roussopoulos said.

He said the jet pilots also saw two people possibly trying to take control of the plane; it was unclear if they were crewmembers or passengers. The plane apparently was on automatic pilot when it crashed, a Helios spokesman said.

"When a pilot has no communication with the control tower, the procedure dictates that other planes must accompany and help the plane land. Unfortunately, it appeared that the pilot was already dead as was, possibly, everyone else on the plane," Cyprus Transport Minister Haris Thrasou said.

At 34,000 feet, the altitude where the F-16 jets met the airliner, the effects of depressurization are swift, said David Kaminski Morrow, of the British-based Air Transport Intelligence magazine.

"If the aircraft is at 30,000 feet, you don't stay conscious for long, maybe 15 to 30 seconds," he said.

The flight was to have continued to Prague, Czech Republic, after stopping in Athens.

About 100 relatives arrived from Cyprus on at least one special flight from the eastern Mediterranean island and were taken to the morgue by bus. Others arrived in Athens from other parts of Greece to identify victims.

"I lost my son, his wife and my three grandchildren. I want those responsible for these flying cemeteries to be punished," Anastasios Koudas said at Athens airport.

A group of relatives was also expected to visit the crash site, where firefighters and investigators were combing the area and collecting wreckage and other items in orange bags. A firefighting helicopter was dousing the area with water to prevent a blaze caused by the crash from rekindling.

Pope Benedict XVI on Monday prayed for the victims.

"I desire to express my spiritual nearness to the dear people of Cyprus, particularly tried by the air plane accident which caused the death of 121 persons," Benedict told pilgrims who were at the Vatican summer palace in Castel Gandolfo to receive his blessing.

Deputy Health Minister Thanassis Yiannopoulos said 18 bodies had been transferred to the morgue. The other recognizable remains were being brought to the morgue while about 30 would be identified by DNA.

The Cyprus government declared a three-day period of national mourning, while in Athens flags were ordered to fly at half staff on Tuesday. A 40-day mourning period was declared in Paralymni, a Cypriot town of 10,000 that had 16 of its residents on the plane.