Greek Air Tragedy Could Have Been Much Worse

The largest airplane disaster in Greece's history occurred last weekend, when Helios Airways Flight ZU522 crashed north of Athens last Sunday.

There's been plenty of speculation and mystery surrounding the circumstances of the crash. I don't want to speculate on the reasons for the crash, what the fighter pilots witnessed, or why the relative of one of the people on board lied about receiving a text message. I do want to talk about the disaster that didn't occur.

The crash occurred in a lightly populated area. The nearest house was 400m away. We have family friends who have a vacation home in Grammatiko, and who were there at the time of the crash (about 2-3km away). They drove over and witnessed the dozens of fire crews putting out the fire and dealing with the wreckage. But they also witnessed how the crash didn't affect other homes or people on the ground.

The tragedy is very awful and very mournful, to be sure. My thoughts go out to all of the families and friends affected by the crash. But I also stop and think how much worse things could have been if the plane crashed in a more heavily populated area.

And then I wonder how it came to be that the plane crashed in a remote area. And then I start speculating.