The Tragedy of Helios Flight 522
Black Box Down
00:00
The Alarm Goes Off at 12 Thousand Feet, It's Definitely Wrong
The cabin pressure does not climb above approximately eight thousand feet in normal operation. It was determined that the pressurization became insufficient for the flight crew to maintain their consciousness as the flight climbed to flight level three, four, zero. At this altitude you only have 60 to 90 seconds of useful consciousness. The passenger oxygen system is only designed to last 12 minutes. And the pilots weren't aware they'd passed out, essentially exactly what happened.
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