On this day in 2005, the worst tragedy in the history of Cypriot aviation occurred.
The "Helios" aircraft crashed in Grammatiko Attica, killing all one hundred and twenty one passengers, one hundred and fifteen travelers and six crew members.
Read also: The memorial services of the 16 victims of the "Ilios" tragedy were held in Paralimni
Relatives of the victims are expected to go to the place of the tragedy again this year, where a memorial service will be held in their memory.
Watch the video of Famagusta.News (2018) about the plane tragedy with statements of relatives:
The facts
The plane departed from Larnaca at 09:07 on the morning of August 14, 2005. With a stopover at Eleftherios Venizelos Airport in Athens, it would arrive in the Czech capital, Prague.
At 10:37 he entered the Athens FIR, but did not come into contact with air traffic controllers, which activated the procedure according to the plan for similar cases. At 11:05, following the order of the then Chief of the Greek Air Force, two F-16 fighters took off, which at 11:18 made visual contact with the plane and found that the co-pilot was unconscious and the governor was out of place.
The oxygen supply system with masks had been activated and the aircraft was flying on autopilot. The F-16 pilots saw at 11:41 flight attendant Andreas Prodromou trying to take control of the plane (he had a pilot's license). At 11:50 the left engine stopped and at 12:00 the right engine.
The "Helios" Boeing 737 crashed at 12:05 in the mountainous area of Grammatiko in northern Attica.
Victims
Of the 115 passengers, 67 would disembark for Athens and the rest would continue to Prague. The passengers were 93 adults and 22 people under 18. 103 were Cypriot and 12 Greek nationals. 118 bodies were recovered from the crash site, most of them charred by the fire that broke out after the crash.
Autopsies revealed that all of them were alive at the time of the crash, but it was not known whether they were conscious, and toxicology tests did not show any substance they may have inhaled or ingested. The identification of the corpses was done mainly by comparing their DNA with samples from first degree relatives. Those identified were transported and buried in Cyprus.
Cause
The first estimates spoke of a sudden decompression of the interior of the aircraft, as among the bodies there were many who were wearing oxygen masks. The aircraft had a history of air conditioning problems. However, the experts cannot justify the fall from this damage alone and why the captain could not deal with the problem by descending to a low height, as well as why he was not in his position. The "black boxes" recording the flight history were found at the crash site and sent to France for analysis.
Finding
In October 2006, fourteen months after the crash of the plane, the conclusion of the Hellenic Commission for the Investigation of Accidents and Flight Safety under Akrivos Tsolakis on the causes of the crash was made public.
The causes of the fall
The finding attributed joint liability to the engineers who checked the aircraft for its last flight and to the operators. However, the final cause of the fall, as a consequence of the previous ones, was the stoppage of the engines due to a lack of fuel.
Latent causes
The latent causes, i.e. those causes which are identified and whose latent function contributed to the activation of the active causes, are:
The Department of Civil Aviation, whose perennial and ongoing inadequacy and shortcomings did not ensure the necessary level of oversight.
The airline "Helios" and the shortcomings in matters of training, management and quality control that were also maintained due to the inadequacy of the Department of Civil Aviation.
Boeing, which, despite the relevant events and indications, did not take sufficient and satisfactory corrective measures to prevent similar consecutive events that led to the crash of the Helios Boeing 737-300.
The European and international organizations JAA, ICAO and EASA, which while from 1999 until August 2005, in audits found many, serious and recurring problems, in the Department of Civil Aviation and the aviation industry of Cyprus, did not quickly receive the necessary effective measures, consistently showing tolerance for the continuation of the situation.
Trial
The trial of five company executives on charges of manslaughter and causing death by reckless, reckless or dangerous act began in Nicosia on September 17, 2009.
The Court of First Instance of Athens found Dimitris Pantazis, Giorgos Kikkidis, Ianko Stoimenov and Alan Irwin, all executives of the "Helios" company, guilty without mitigating circumstances for the plane crash. The Misdemeanor Court imposed a sentence of one year for each loss of life, plus a base sentence of three years, relating to their guilt of manslaughter. The total sentence of the company's executives is 124 years.
The Misdemeanor Court retired to decide whether the sentence would be redeemable, as requested by the defendants' lawyers, and at the same time whether the sentence would be suspensive pending the hearing of the appeal. The proposal for imprisonment was ten years.
In February 2013, the Tripartite Criminal Appeals Court imposed ten-year prison terms, redeemable for 80.000 euros each, on three of the four defendants.
With information from Simerini
