RedHanded - Shorthand: Helios 522 - ‘The Ghost Plane’

Episode Date: April 10, 2026

When two fighter jets came to check on the unresponsive Helios Flight 522, they were stunned at what they saw: all 115 passengers, lying motionless in their seats. Even worse – the pilot’s seat was empty, and the co-pilot lay slumped over the control panel. The commercial plane was drifting along at 34,000 feet, on autopilot – and fuel was running out. This is the ShortHand.--Patreon - Ad-free & Bonus EpisodesYouTube - Full-length Video EpisodesTikTok / Instagram

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Hello. Hi. I think this might be our least successful recording day of all time. I'm so tired. It's okay. You guys won't know. We're ready. We're pumped. But it has been a very bizarre start to the recording session. And if you hear some banging,

just because somebody seems to be doing some fucking DIY right above us, in a soundproof studio, apparently, that we pay for. So, you know, there's that. Yes. There is also a confession that I have to make. Uh-huh. I didn't know about this, but I did know that Helios is the Greek God of the Sun. So I thought we were doing a shorthand on the Greek God of the Sun. And that is not what we're doing at all.

If you were also hoping that that's what you are going to listen to today, I apologize. That's not what we're listening to. But I also don't because this is fascinating. On the morning of August 14, 2005, Helios Airways Flight 5-2,000. departed from Cyprus with 115 passengers and six crew on board. It should have been a simple 90-minute journey from Cyprus to Prague, with a stop in Athens. But just 20 minutes after take-off, flight 522 went completely silent.

Finally, after all emergency contact procedures failed, a pair of S-16 fighter jets met the aircraft at 34,000 feet. There the pilots discovered a chilling scene, as all 115 passengers lay motionless in their seats. Even worse, the pilot's seat was empty, and the co-pilot, they slumped over the control panel. This is why Helios Flight 522 is known as the Ghost Plain, or the Flying Tomb.

There were no signs of life until a mysterious passenger entered the cockpit. He looked at the pilots, pointed downwards, and then the plane hurtled to the ground, killing everyone on board. Autopsies revealed that every single person was alive at the time of impact. So what really happened aboard the ghost plane, and who was to blame for the worst air crash in Greece's history? This is the shorthand. Helios Airways was a budget airline operator owned by Cypriot businessman Andreas Dracu.

So please note that when we say budget, we're not talking about EasyJet or Ryanair. By comparison, those two are mega deluxe. Are you aware of the American Airlines spirit? I've heard of it. I've never flown on it. Don't. Oh no. Worse than Ryanair? Way worse.

There's like a meme about it that's like Don't Fly Spirit unless you want to become one. Oh, wow. Ryanair, do you remember a few years ago there was talk about. them starting like a plane line basically where you just stand. No toilets and standing. God. And like, sure, great. If that helps, like, more people be able to access it, awesome. But they are just terrible, terrible airline.

And so was Helios Airways. They had just four planes and a very, very small staff of mostly seasonal or temporary workers. So let's meet the crew. Aboard Flight 522 was pilot Hans Jürgen Merton, an East German, a few words. His co-pilot, Pambus, Paya Lambus, which I'm definitely saying wrong, was a Cypriot native and father to four kids. In the cabin there was chief steward, Louisa Vouteri. She had stepped in to cover for a sick co-worker, despite being very busy planning her wedding.

Then there was stewardess Maropi Sopacluus, who was 25 and had grown up in the US. Then we have another person with an incredibly difficult Greek name, as I'm learning this entire episode is going to be about, Andreas Prodomo, who had agreed to cover the flight for a colleague since his girlfriend, Harris Chariolumbus, was also working. They also planned to marry, and her boy was he a catch. Because as well as being an attentive boyfriend,

Andreas was studying to be a pilot and spent his spare time scuba diving. Action man. But also, if our past episodes or anything to go on, also knows multiple ways to kill you. Yes. With a packed plane and the crew in place, Helios Flight 522 was ready for takeoff. And that's the last thing that went to plan

on what should have been a simple flight. Just as the wheels left the tarmac, an alarm began to blare in the cockpit. The pilots identified it as the master caution alarm. That sounds serious. Yes. what it does is it warns the crew that systems on the plane may be overheating, which is not good at any time but especially not good during takeoff,

which along with landing is famously the most dangerous part of flying. The problem was Merton and Pialombus couldn't seem to find any overheating systems at all. A call to a ground engineer proved a confused and frustrating exchange as he couldn't locate the issue either, not ideal. But it all got so much worse when 20 minutes into the flight, Helius 522's communication went dead. Never to be heard from again. Down at zero degrees altitude, the ground crew were trying everything they could to get through to the pilots. But all their emergency calls went unanswered.

Attempts at contact from other airborne planes were also ignored. So, as a last resort, the ground crew engaged the military. They deployed two S-16 fighter jets to meet Helios 522 at 34,000 feet in the air. One jet pilot tried to gain the attention of the crew with radio and signals. The other manoeuvred around the plane looking for structural damage, fire or smoke. But instead, they found 115 passengers laying motionless in their seats. 93 adults and 22 children with oxygen masks strapped to their faces. and no signs of life.

As we said at the top, the captain's seat was vacant and the co-pilot was slumped over the controls. The aircraft was literally in autopilot on its way to Athens. And while autopilot can, in fact, get you to your destination, you do need an actual human to stick the landing. For now, AI, I'll sort that out. Two years, I reckon.

So when the plane approached Athens, with no one to land it, Helios 522 entered into a holding pattern, which sent it in circles around the city upwards of ten times. But it couldn't go on forever. Flight 522 left Cyprus with enough fuel for the 90-minute flight, plus a little extra as a contingency. But by now the plane had been airborne for almost twice the intended flight time. So it was clear that this Boeing 737 was headed for disaster.

Specifically, it looked as though it was on course to crash directly into the densely populated Greek capital. The S-16 pilots must have thanked every deity they could when a mysterious passenger entered the cockpit. This man took a seat at the control panel. For all intents and purposes, it looked like he knew what he was doing. He'd donned the headphones and spoke into the radio. But the S-16 pilots couldn't hear a word. They signalled for him to follow them, away from the city and out of the danger zone.

But just then, the fuel tank ran out. And the left engine flamed out. The man in the cockpit looked to the jet pilot and simply pointed down. The plane was about to drop and he knew it. In a split second, he jerked the steering wheel, and the plane jolted to the left, thankfully, away from the city. and after almost an hour of attempted contact and interception, the aircraft descended rapidly.

It hurtled from the sky and crashed into the hills of Gramatico Village, 25 kilometres from Athens. All 93 adults, 22 children and six crew were dead. When emergency services arrived at the scene, they found bodies and luggage strewn across the charred, blackened hills. Many passengers were found still strapped to their seats, as they had been at 34,000 feet. Naturally, an investigation kicked off immediately.

The Hellenic Republic Ministry of Transport and Communications conducted interviews and inquiries. They also set about painstakingly locating, mapping, and tagging each fragment of the plane. Hauntingly, autopsies revealed that every single person on Helios Flight 522 was alive at the time of impact. So, what was it, negligence, terrorism, human error? More importantly, who was the mysterious person in the cockpit? And what stopped every other person on that flight from intervening

or even reacting to what was happening around them? The answer is not simple because it never is. But through the accident report and investigation, it became clear that there were many parts that made up this nightmare scenario. First of all, the investigators wanted to know whether mechanical issues were at fault. What they uncovered was a haunting list of issues with the plane.

On the 16th of December 2004, just months before the crash, the Boeing 737 had experienced a rapid loss of cabin pressure. Oxygen masks were deployed while the crew made an emergency descent. And it really makes you wonder maybe the plane should have been grounded after this or gone into a serious repair program.

Well, no. instead the plane continued to play up to the point where the environmental control panel had been repaired or inspected seven times in the 10 weeks leading up to the crash and I mean it just really is so so scary I mean if even my phone played up seven times in 10 weeks I'd seriously think about getting a new one let alone you know a plane that carries 121 people and can, you know, take them all to their deaths. Even on the morning of the crash during a flight from London to Cyprus,

the crew reported a frozen door and a strange banging sound, which are red, red flags. Imagine being on the flight before. Oh, my God. Nope, this is why my dad checks. Before I get on a plane, is it a Boeing or is it an airbus?

And if it's a Boeing, He bundles me back into the car. Alan Irwin was the engineer on the ground that day, and he was tasked with inspecting the planes for turnaround. Bad day to be Alan Irwin. He ran his tests, playing particular attention to the aforementioned frozen door and the environment control panel.

To run tests on the environmental control panel, the pressurization switch had to be turned from auto to manual. And after his little checks, Alan confirmed that the plane the ghost plane was safe to fly. Time for a small but crucial sidebar on the role of the P5 pressurization panel.

As planes go higher, the air grows thinner and it becomes harder to breathe. But passengers must have enough air to breathe no matter how high up they are because that's how humans work and that's where the pressurization panel comes in. Every time you fly on a plane and breathe that sweet, sweet, horrible, disgusting,

recycled air, like you've never left the grave, that's the pressurization panel doing its job to make sure the plane is the air-tight vestibule of oxygen and calm that we need it to be. With the switch on auto, the air pressure adjusts automatically as the plane flies and gets higher, but with the switch on manual, it simply does not. That's when the oxygen masks deploy, and you need to get out of the sky as fast as possible. So what happens when you don't have enough oxygen? Low oxygen, otherwise known as hypoxia,

is possibly the worst assortment of symptoms for a person operating heavy machinery, like a plane. These include, but are not limited to, lightheadedness, diddiness, poor coordination, impaired judgment and tunnel vision. And not to mention, hypoxia can quickly lead to a coma, brain death, and then actual death.

When the investigators discovered the P5 pressurization panel, fucking hell that's hard to say. At the scene of the crash, they found that the switch was clearly set to manual, meaning that the passengers and the crew would most definitely have succumbed to hypoxia and fallen into comas and then slipped into brain death, which explains why they were all alive on impact, despite appearing to be quite the opposite. I'm going to ask this question with the full knowledge that you may not have the answer, but maybe somebody listening will.

Why is there a manual setting? What is the reason for that? I don't know. I am curious because that seems like something that should just be checked before I reflect, but maybe one that you just don't need to have it. It's not like a light switch. We're like, sometimes I need the light on, sometimes I need it off. When you always need it on, maybe just it's just on.

on. Yeah. Confusion. But despite the fact that we don't understand why it was set to manual, we do know that Alan Irvin is to blame for leaving the switch on manual and therefore causing the death of all 121 people on board Helios 522. So despite the fact that we don't know why there is a manual setting, could there be an easy answer here?

Could Alan Irving be to blame for leaving the switch on manual and therefore causing the depth of all 121 people on board Helios 522? Not quite. Irwin, Helios and Boeing all confirmed that there are critical pre-flight checklists that the pilot and co-pilot must complete before takeoff. This checklist features the P5 switch, which the pilots must ensure is in auto, not manual. So how did this happen?

After the fact, Helios staff claimed that the co-pilot, Palumbus, had a very poor track record for carrying out the checklists prior to flying. Oh, good. Why is that a known thing? That's like, oh, yeah, you know what he's like. He never puts his cups away. They're always piled up on his desk. What? He always just forgets to check that that really important thing has happened.

I am baffled. But anyway, it was always. also known that Palambas and Martin did not get along and were likely keen to get this job over and done with. But surely when the alarm sounded, they should have been able to identify and then fix the issue. Long time listeners and Surruti's father might have predicted that our old friend the Boeing 737 would play a part itself because the Boeing 737 has a checkered history at best. As of February 2024, there have been 529 incidents and accidents, as well as 5,779 deaths on a Boeing 737.

This plane has a less than ideal design feature. When you're in a high-pressure, deeply dangerous situation, like flying a plane, you need clear signals and instructions at all times. The Boeing 737 had doubled up on its alarm, So the master caution alarm, and the cabin altitude warning was signalled by exactly the same intermittent sound. What? Why? Why?

Why? What? The sound effects budget couldn't stretch to two different alarms. What? Yeah. Oh my God. I'm like, it's like you leaving your fridge door open and your burglar alarm making the same noise. And you're like, oh, but my fridge door is shut.

Better just go back to bed. What's happening? So, to recap, the master caution alarm that we told you about indicates that the systems might be overheating, whereas the cabin altitude warning lets you know that the pressurisation within the plane is not sufficient. Also, known as, we are running out of air,

which is pretty serious. Also, if you are going to have a manual fucking setting, why doesn't it glow red or something? Yeah, why isn't there... something that comes up on your screen, just like a big light that's like, hey, hey, that's on manual. We don't know why there's a manual setting, but you should really turn it to auto. The cabin altitude warning is one of the rarest warnings that a pilot can get.

As such, it's quite difficult to identify on this spot while climbing into the air with 121 passengers at your mercy. Boeing was well aware of this issue, as it had been flagged, many times. In 2001, on a flight from Christianson to Oslo, the cabin altitude warning sounded as the plane climbed to 10,000 feet.

The pilot and first officer on that plane checked the systems and were satisfied that they were not overheating. They assumed that the alarm was faulty and switched it off. Guys, don't do that. Don't do that. When oxygen masks dropped in the cabin,

they finally realized their mistake. Following this, there was no less than four serious pressurization incidents reported between 2000 and 2005. The Helios investigation uncovered 10 more incidents reported over the previous decade, in which the crews admitted to misinterpreting the alarm. It just also seems like quite an easy fix. I understand that planes are extremely expensive and that's why they're all knocking around in the air basically falling apart. But to change an alarm sound seems like an easy thing to do.

I mean, the mysteries of Boeing will never cease to amaze me. But to put all of your minds at ease, listeners, there are now two separate alarms, even though Boeing has rejected any claims that the crash was their fault. As Helios 522 climbed, the air thinned and the two pilots were completely unaware. The oxygen masks in the cockpit didn't deploy, like the ones. in the cabin. They're always accessible in case of emergency, so the alarm was kind of the pilot's only chance to identify the problem.

When the S-16 jets arrived, they found Palumbus passed out over the controls and Merton collapsed behind him in his chair. So who was the mystery person who entered the cockpit? Well, it was none other than Air Steward and superhuman, Andreas Proderumo. how had he managed to dodge brain death

and find his way into the cabin maybe because he's a scuba diver who's really good at holding his breath Yeah possibly and also at the end of each row on a plane there is an additional oxygen mask These are specifically placed so that cabin crew can move from row to row

checking oxygen masks are worn correctly while taking a hit off each spare mask This is known as monkey swinging which sounds horrible So Andreas had much more than the 12 minutes of oxygen allocated to the regular masks, allowing him to make it through the locked cockpit door. As for how he got in, we have no idea.

He either guessed random codes or he managed to extract the code from the senior steward. I guessed random codes. That seems bonkers. Yeah, man, there's no way. Like, there's quite literally. no way that that happened. There's lots of questions about this, well, mystery. There's lots of things we're just never going to know. But what we do know is that once he was inside the cockpit,

Andreas took a seat at the control panel and called for help. But Andreas's last message was never received, because the radio was still set to the frequency of the origin airport, for which it was now, of course, out of range. When the cockpit voice recorder was found in the wreckage of the plane, Andreas's heartbreaking lastage attempt was heard. In a very weak voice, Andreas says, Mayday, Mayday, Mayday, Mayday, Helios Flight 522,

Down, Mayday, Mayday, Mayday. That's when the plane ran out of fuel. The left engine failed, and Andreas, having done everything he could, pointed downwards. In a feat of quick thinking and bravery, Andreas quickly steered the plane to the left so that it swerved away from the city of Athens. With all other passengers in a coma,

Andreas was the only person awake and aware as Helios Flight 522 crashed into the hills of Gramatico, killing everyone on board. It is standard practice in a tragedy like this for the airline to send condolence letters to the bereaved, which is quite frankly the very least they can do. I don't think I would want that.

Just, fuck, fuck you, Boeing. I just feel so sick at the thought of at least the thing you know if you're in a plane and it's going down is that you're passed out. Andreas is awake. But the families of the victims of Helios 522 received no letters because the executives at Helios refused to sign them.

They saw sharing their condolences as accepting blame, which it kind of is, but also it is your fault. And obviously the crash was gaining quite a lot of international press. Helios staff even received death threats and intimidation. Brian Field became the COO of Helios two weeks before the crash Jesus, and described a company in shambles, with, quote, a culture of fear where people were encouraged to stretch the rules to the limits. And his main gripe was that the measly four planes, the airline owned,

were flown back to back without the downtime that's needed to ensure safe travel. With all of the blame and buck-passing, where does this leave the bereaved? Well, in a hunt for justice and accountability, they sued Boeing for 76 million euros. Boeing rejected the accusation, blaming the flight crew and crown staff, citing the 16 mistakes they made that caused the crash. The case was settled out of court for an undisclosed sum, and thankfully, as we said, Boeing updated at least their alarm system. Next, the families turned to Helios Airways,

where four officials were charged with 121 counts of manslaughter through recklessness and negligence. But the case was dismissed and the defendants were acquitted. The Cypriot Attorney General filed for an appeal, but the new trial was dropped due to double jeopardy. but like if the case is dismissed it's not really double jeopardy if there was no trial

I don't know that seems I mean it seems like there was a trial but they were acquitted but I would have thought there's a civil case surely yeah finally the family has made it to magistrate's court where all four Helios officials face 12 years in prison all but the chief engineer

lost their appeals but luckily for them In a corrupt legal system, money is more important than justice. And they were given the option to buy out their sentences for 79,000 euros each, which of course they did. That's mad. Yeah, that's absolutely bonkers. And where did that money go? Just to the court?

I guess so. The crash was a tragic and totally avoidable loss of life. While on a mechanical level, there have been changes to prevent similar incidents, the lack of justice for the bereaved leaves a very sour taste behind. With Helios and Boeing dodging accountability at every turn, it's a horrible reminder that wealth can place someone above the law, even when there's 121 deaths on their hands. The hero, though, is, of course, Andreas,

who, despite being the only passenger awake and aware of the dire situation, was able to battle his way into the cockpit and attempt to prevent the crash. Though his calls went unanswered and there wasn't much he could do once the left engine blew, the swift decision he made to steer the plane away from the city of Athens before its descent saved innumerable lives. So be more Andreas, be less faceless corporation, would be my advice.

But a massive takeaway from that is, I think I'm going to develop a horrible fear of flying. Yeah, I really felt like it was creeping up on me as we were doing that episode. I don't know how to make anyone feel better. If you hear an alarm, question everything. Check everything. Yeah. Just in case.

And we'll see you next time, guys. See you next time. Bye. Travel safely.