The 2005 crash of a Helios Airways Boeing 737-300 — with its pilots incapacitated by hypoxia after they failed to recognize a cabin pressurization system malfunction — is a prime example of what can happen when communication and crew resource management (CRM) break down in a modern, multicultural cockpit.1
All 121 people in the airplane were killed when the 737 depressurized and ran out of fuel, the engines flamed out and the airplane crashed in Grammatiko, Greece, during what was to have been a flight from Larnaca, Cyprus, to Prague, Czech Republic, with a stop in Athens.
In its final report on the accident, the Hellenic Air Accident Investigation and Aviation Safety Board said the crew had failed to recognize that the cabin pressurization mode selector was in the wrong position.
The Helios crew exhibited poor CRM before takeoff and during climb, and the difference in their nationalities and primary languages — the captain was German, and the first officer was Cypr…
