CNN: 121 feared dead in Greek air crashATHENS, Greece (CNN) -- A Cypriot plane has crashed into a mountain north of Athens after air traffic controllers lost contact with the pilots, apparently killing all 121 people on board, Greek officials said.
Helios Airlines Flight 522 with 115 passengers and six crew crashed en route from Larnaca, Cyprus to Athens about 12 p.m. (0900 GMT, 5 a.m. ET) Sunday, officials said.
It was then supposed to continue to Prague, Czech Republic, according to the Czech Press Agency, citing officials at the Prague airport.
Authorities do not believe there were any survivors.
The Boeing 737 crashed near the coastal town of Grammatikos, about 40 km (25 miles) north of Athens and near the historic town of Marathon.
The crash site was littered with bodies and debris, Athens journalist Paul Anastasi told CNN. Video footage from the site showed the smoking wreckage of the aircraft. Only the tail portion remained identifiable.
"There is wreckage everywhere," Grammatikos Mayor George Papageorgiou told The Associated Press from the scene.
"The fuselage has been destroyed. It fell into a chasm and there are pieces. All the residents are here trying to help."
The jet entered Greek air space about 10:30 a.m., but efforts by air traffic controllers to contact the pilots were futile. After some time, two Greek F-16s were scrambled, Greek Air Force spokesman Yiannis Papageorgiou told CNN.
As the F-16s approached, their pilots saw "no sign of life" in the cockpit, and the plane apparently was on autopilot, Papageorgiou said.
The F-16 pilots reported the pilot was not in the cockpit, and the co-pilot was slumped over the controls, Anastasi said.
They also reported they could see through the plane's windows that the oxygen masks had dropped down, a possible signal of an oxygen problem on the aircraft.
The F-16s escorted the plane until it struck the mountain.
According to the Czech Press Agency, the Boeing pilots had reported an air conditioning problem on the plane.
Greek television reported that one of the passengers had sent a mobile text message to his cousin before the crash saying the pilots were slumped and that it was freezing in the plane.
"The pilot has turned blue (in the face)," the passenger said in the SMS message to his cousin, Reuters quoted the television report as saying. "Cousin farewell we're freezing."
Reuters describe the scene as an uninhabited mountainous bushland area.
Witness Dimitris Karezas, who owns a summer camp in the area, said, "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.
"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.
Helios Airlines is a subsidiary of Cyprus Airlines.