Filenews 14 August 2022
Seventeen years are marked this year by the crash of the plane of the company "Helios" in the mountainous area of Grammatiko, which took with it 121 souls, of which 22 were children, making it the worst air tragedy on Greek soil. Seventeen years since then dozens of families have dressed in black and the wounds are still open.
Today, Sunday, on the anniversary of the tragedy, the memorial service of the 121 who lost their lives is held in the Chapel of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary in Grammatikos, Attica – built in memory of the victims.
Member of the Committee of Relatives of the victims of the plane crash, Sotiris Sotiriadis, said that 17 years later the wounds are open. "Entire families were lost. The pain of the parents who have been blackened since then is equally intense. These days relatives are again living the drama of 2005. The difficult moments of identifying the victims come to mind. A lot of people went to Athens at the time to recognize their own, an effort that for many did not come to fruition and was painful," he said.
Until now, Mr. Sotiriadis noted, there is no vindication of the relatives. "Due to the non-implementation of a routine safety in "HELIOS" mistakes were made in the air and we had the tragedy. No relative considers that the responsibilities have been attributed. Those responsible essentially bought their sentence with a humiliating amount from the Greek justice system."
The flight
The fatal aircraft departed on the morning of August 14, 2005 from Larnaka airport with final destination Prague and a stopover "Eleftherios Venizelos" of Athens. At 10.15am the aircraft entered the National Airspace of Athens, but without having any contact with the Control Tower.
At 11:05, two F-16 fighters took off from Nea Anchialos, which came into visual contact with the plane at 11:18 and found that the co-pilot of the aircraft was unconscious, the captain was not in place and the oxygen supply system with masks had been activated.
As it turned out from the investigations, the aircraft was flying on autopilot and with all the occupants having lost consciousness except for the flight attendant Andreas Prodromou who was trying to take control. At 12.05 the aircraft crashed in the mountainous area of Grammatiko, dragging 115 passengers and six-member crew to their deaths. The 103 passengers were Cypriot nationals and 12 were Greeks.
Judgement
On February 18, 2013, the Assize Court of Nicosia acquitted all the defendants in the case of the crash, on August 14, 2005, in Attica, of the fatal plane "Boeing 737-300" in Grammatiko, Attica, an accident that resulted in the death of 121 people.
The acquittal was made after the suspension of the criminal prosecution registered by the General Prosecutor's Office for all the accused natural persons and the airline "Helios".
The defendants were the Executive President of "Ilios" Andreas Drakos and the CEO of the same company Dimitris Pantazis, as well as the Flight Manager George Kikkidis and the Bulgarian chief pilot of the company Yanko Stoymenov.
The Athens Court of Appeal had upheld the conviction imposed at first instance by the Three-Member Misdemeanour Court, in its judgment of 7 February 2013. Their sentence, 122 years in prison for each, had been commuted to a ten-year sentence and then to a fine. After paying about €73,000, they were released.
Based on the principle that no one is tried by two countries for the same offense, the three were expected to be removed from the Cypriot indictment. The Attorney General ruled that the prosecution of all the defendants should be suspended, citing insurmountable difficulties in advancing the case.
