A man who lost family members in the 2005 Helios crash says the relatives of the airline victims are still feeling a sense of injustice, exactly eight years to the day when 121 people lost their lives in the worst aviation disaster in Greek and Cypriot history.
Around 80 relatives of the Helios victims are currently at Grammatikos crash site in Greece where they will hold special memorials to honour their loved ones who perished in the crash.
In February this year, Attorney General Petros Klerides dropped an appeal against four defendants in the Helios trial because a Greek court had already convicted three of them in a separate trial.
During the Criminal Court proceedings in Cyprus, the case had been dismissed, and the defendants acquitted in December 2011 because the judges ruled that there was no “causal association between the defendants and the negligence they were charged with for the fatal accident”.
Klerides had angered the relatives of the victims who believed that there was still unfinished business with regards to bringing those to justice and that prosecutors in Cyprus had effectively botched the case early on.
Nicolas Yiasoumis, who had lost members of his family in the air disaster and would later go on to head the Helios victims’ relatives committee, says legally the case is now closed.
“Everything is over with regards to pursuing this matter in the courts,” he told The Cyprus Daily.
“We obviously feel a sense of injustice over the end result of the legal proceedings. We don’t feel that justice has been served by the guilty simply buying out their sentence. We also believe that many people responsible for what happened were not brought to justice.”
Operations manager George Kikidis, chief executive officer Demetris Pantazis, chief pilot Ianko Stoimenov and chief engineer Alan Irwin were all found guilty in Greece of charges relating to manslaughter and negligence last year and recently lost their appeal at the Athens High Court.
Their sentence of ten years was ordered to stand but the defendants were given the option to buy out their sentence for around €75,000 each.
Greek investigators blamed the crash of the Helios Airways flight outside Athens on human error after Boeing 737-300 failed to pressurise after taking off from Larnaca Airport.
Prosecutors in both countries blamed airline officials of cutting corners on safety operations whilst also saying that they failed to act on advice that the pilots did not meet the necessary aviation standards.
Cyprus Weekly
