Icy death for passengers and crew in Cypriot plane crash

Check out The Austrailian's account of the crash...

The Greek military denied that its fighter jets had shot down the stricken jet. The F-16s were dispatched after the passenger jet ignored air traffic communications once it flew into Greek airspace - a counter-terrorism procedure adopted after last year's Olympic Games to prevent hijackers crashing a jet over Athens.

Greek police last night ruled out hijacking, pointing to a fault with the airconditioning, but military spokesman Gerassimos Kalpoyannakis said "an act of piracy was likely".

Italian news agency ANSA speculated that terrorists might have sabotaged the flight by pumping toxic gas through the airconditioning.