Maybe the Greek Airforce Isn't So Amazing?

This is really weird. In the article I previously cited, it was only "minutes" from loss of communication with a commercial jet to scrambling of jets. But according to this story, it took 47 minutes from loss of contact with the Helios Airlines Jet to scrambling interceptors and then another 30 minutes for the jets to find the jet and look into the cockpit.

What the hell? Why such a difference in accounts? Just overly fast/sloppy reporting in the first article (it was written a day before the others)? Or was the timeline altered after the first story came out?

This timeline also suggests that the plane flew for 2 hours without pilots before crashing. Seems like a long-time.


Here's more on the story from the BBC: they support the long period of time to intercept the plane.

In fact, if this timeline is correct, it suggest the Greek Airforce is incredibly bad! Since the plane entered Greek airspace it took them an hour and twenty minutes to get to the jet! What if it was a terrorist intent on crashing it?

What's going on here? Is it really so hard to intercept a wayward jet?

Additional oddity: the bodies found at the plane crash site were frozen solid, presumably because the plane lost its cabin pressure and very cold air got into the jet. Yet not all people were dead before the plane crashed. How does that work?