Child lived only a second after Cypriot plane crash

17/08/2005 - 13:13:26
A five-year-old boy who was aboard the Cypriot airliner that crashed in Greece was still alive – but only for a second – after the plane slammed into a mountainous area north of Athens, a coroner said today.

An post-mortem on the boy’s body – which was found burned – indicated he had breathed in soot from a fire sparked by the plane crash, said Nikos Kalogrias, part of a six-member team of coroners investigating Sunday’s Helios Airways plane crash that left 121 people dead.

But results of later toxicology tests conducted to determine the cause of death showed the boy died of massive injuries to the head and body and had inhaled only a small amount of soot, consistent with drawing his last breath, Kalogrias said.