PASSENGERS and crew on board Helios flight ZU522 were still alive when the plane crashed in Greece on Sunday, killing all 121 aboard, the chief coroner of the investigation said yesterday.
EMBATTLED private airline Helios Airways yesterday acknowledged the plane that went down northeast of Athens on Sunday, killing all 121 on board, was the same that faced a well-documented decompression problem back in December 2004. The admission came as detectives converged on the airlines’ offices efforts to gather and assess all data relating to the horrific crash.
HELIOS Airways yesterday acknowledged that the Boeing 737 jet that crashed northeast of Athens on Sunday was the same one that experienced a decompression problem in the not-so-distant past.
Following widespread media reports about prior decompression incidents, the private airline yesterday released a statement saying it always enforced safety regulations to the fullest.
SCORES of accusations have been made against Helios Airways over the past three days, not only from distraught relatives speaking from the depths of their grief but also from current and former employees and passengers.
THREE days after the Helios crash, which has prompted unprecedented interest from around the world, experts remain baffled as to what went wrong.
THE MYSTERY crash of Helios flight ZU 522 has sparked a rash of theories, speculation and unanswered questions as to what might have led to the disaster: here are some of them.
What could have led to the disaster?
1. A failure of oxygen supplies could explain the unconscious state of the co-pilot had the aircraft lost cabin pressure.
TWELVE entire Cypriot families, including a family of four Armenian Cypriots, were wiped out in Sunday’s horrific air crash that killed 121 passengers and six crew members of the doomed Helios flight that went down north of Athens.
HELIOS claimed their flights were running as normal yesterday, even though the company’s spokesman at Larnaca Airport, Nicos Anastasiades, could not provide a flight schedule.
THE SPOKESMAN for Helios Airlines at Larnaca Airport, Nicos Anastasiades, claimed yesterday the company has had few cancellations since the crash of flight ZU522 on Sunday, which killed 121 people.
“Surprisingly, there were not that many cancellations, even after the terrible news on Sunday. Our customers have shown us tremendous support,” said Anastasiades.
CYPRIOTS lit candles and laid wreaths and flowers during memorials and vigils in Nicosia, Limassol, Paphos and other communities as part of three days of national mourning in memory of the victims of the Helios plane crash north of Athens.
Mourners on Sunday night lit 121 candles – one for each victim – in Paphos.
The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.
