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.
The statement made extensive mention of a now well-documented case in December 2004, when a jet bound to Warsaw from Larnaca was grounded for a week after decompression in the cabin.
“In Helios’ six-year history, we have only experienced one incident of decompression on our aircraft. This is not a recurring incident as widely reported and we do not have any other safety concerns regarding the rest of our fleet.
“The aircraft involved in the decompression incident was flying from Warsaw to Larnaca and landed in accordance with normal procedures… at Larnaca airport. This incident was cleared by the Cypriot Air Accident Investigation branch and the Civil Aviation Authority in the UK. The maintenance of the aircraft was not questioned at any time by the authorities.
“We can confirm that the aircraft that experienced the decompression problem was the aircraft that was involved in this accident,” the statement concluded.
Yesterday, Helios announced it would be offering £20,000 in compensation to each of the deceased’s families.
In its statement, the company said the crashed jet had undergone its last routine maintenance on August 10 and then 12, 2005.
“There were no adverse reports arising from these maintenance checks. The aircraft’s yearly maintenance check took place from November 28 until December 11, 2004 in accordance with our approved maintenance programme.”
However, the records show the decompression problem on the Warsaw to Larnaca flight last December occurred just days after the maintenance, raising a host of questions.
Despite the company’s denials that its planes did not face recurring glitches, it was reported yesterday that emergency services at Birmingham International Airport were put on standby just this Saturday after the pilot of a Helios 737 jet reported mechanical problems.
Britain’s Press Association reported that the pilot radioed problems with the plane’s flaps before coming into land at the airport. An airport spokeswoman said it was not a full emergency but fire crews were put on a lower level of alert and tailed the plane as it touched down and taxied.
Several people – including one claiming to be a flight attendant for Helios – have been calling television networks and reporting air conditioning problems aboard the airline’s planes.
According to the flight attendant, who spoke to Mega TV, passengers would often complain about temperatures being too high or too low, or about water dripping from the console above the seats.
“We had instructions to tell them (the passengers) that the temperatures were related to the altitude and that the problem would go away once we gained altitude,” she said.
