On 14 August 2005, Helios Airways Flight 522 left Larnaca for Athens but never made it, crashing in Grammatiko, Greece, and killing all 121 people on board. The tragedy became known as the “Greek Ghost Flight.”

The disaster “boiled down to the flick of a switch.” Shortly after takeoff, a takeoff configuration alarm sounded unexpectedly. Captain Hans-Jürgen Merten and copilot Pampos Charalambous believed it was a cooling system problem. They contacted Helios engineer Alan Irwin on the ground, but when asked to confirm the pressurisation setting, the captain didn’t respond.

Investigators later determined the pressurisation system had been left in manual mode. The crew likely suffered hypoxia, with symptoms such as confusion and poor judgement. Soon after the call with Irwin, radio contact was lost.

Greek fighter jets were scrambled and saw the copilot unconscious, passengers slumped, and only one figure moving—the flight attendant Andreas Prodromou. Using a portable oxygen supply, he entered the cockpit and tried to save the plane.

Prodromou, who had a commercial pilot’s license, made a desperate attempt, calling “Mayday” into the radio. But with the engines out of fuel and the radio still tuned to Larnaca, the plane crashed before help could come.