No more losses due to delay and inefficiency, president says

He was speaking at the memorial service for the victims of the 2005 Helios air crash, which was presided over by Bishop Varnavas of Trimithus, at the Chapel of Panagia Eleftherotria and Agia Paraskevi, in Mosfiloti.

The president said he had mixed feelings and described the plane crash as “the worst tragedy in the history of Cypriot aviation”.

The plane crashed killing all 121 on board on August 14, 2005 in the mountainous Grammatikos area of Greece.

Let us never again, he said “allow delay, apathy and inefficiency to lead to the loss of human lives”.

He assured that “the government will immediately proceed with the implementation of what has been announced by the previous government” noting however that he is aware that “any financial compensation in no way can alleviate the pain”.

On August 14, 2005 at approximately 10.40am the Helios Airways flight 522, scheduled to travel from Cyprus to Prague via Athens, was stuck on a loop at 35,000 feet within the Athens FIR and without having made communication with the ground for more than an hour.

In a state of confusion, the Greek air force had dispatched two F-16 fighter jets to investigate. The fighter jet pilots, glancing into the passenger plane realised that the aircraft’s co-pilot was unconscious, the captain was not in position and passengers were sat motionless with the masked oxygen supply system having been activated.

A while later, an individual was seen slowly dragging themselves into the cockpit and trying to assume control, it was flight attendant Andreas Prodromou who held a UK commercial pilot licence and had managed to remain conscious using a portable oxygen supply.

Soon thereafter however, the left engine blew out due to fuel exhaustion and the plane started to descend. Ten minutes after, the right engine also blew out. At 12.05pm the aircraft crashed into the hills just 40km from Athens.

Investigators concluded that Prodromou’s experience was insufficient in gaining control of the aircraft under those circumstances but had succeeded in banking the plane away from Athens and towards a rural area in the final moments of the flight.

Of the 115 passengers, 103 were Cypriot citizens and 12 citizens of Greece.