Speculation that someone was trying to fly the aircraft up to its final moment
THE Helios Airways Boeing crashed after running out of fuel according to the aircraft’s flight data recorder (‘black box’), Greek state television reported yesterday.
A NEWSPAPER report has claimed that the pilot of the ill-fated Helios Airways plane, which crashed into the mountains in Greece killing all 121 passengers and crew on board, had been instructed by Helios Airways to continue its scheduled flight to Athens despite problems he had reported to them minutes earlier.
THE tragic Helios crash is the latest in a spate of problems that have beset tour operators in recent months, dashing for good the hopes travel agents had for a record-breaking summer of travel.
WHAT WAS said during the last moments of contact between ground control and Helios Airways flight ZU 522?
Reports are now suggesting that the pilot appeared to have told ground control that things were OK after initially reporting air condition problems.
THE doomed Helios plane had problems with its air-conditioning on the previous flight from Heathrow, while carrying more than a hundred British holidaymakers, it has emerged.
Passengers complained that it was unusually cold and cabin crew apologised after running out of blankets.
THE MAJORITY of Helios flights to and from Larnaca airport yesterday were taken over by chartered planes.
The Helios flight to Warsaw took off at 3am with Fisher airlines, while the 7am flight to Luton was run by Lotus.
ONE hundred and eighty Cypriots, who are refusing to return home on a Helios flight, are stranded in Chania, Crete.
A CYPRUS Turkish Airlines passenger plane leaving Cyprus for London Stansted via Turkey, had to make an emergency landing at Tymbou airport shortly after take-off early on Wednesday morning.
According to reports, one of the airliner’s engines failed when a number of birds were sucked-in during take-off, causing technical problems.
FLIGHT International magazine has reported that Turkish and Greek aviation authorities were disputing whether the Helios Airways Boeing 737 that crashed on Sunday issued an emergency transponder broadcast 90 minutes after it left Cyprus.
A NEW crossing point in the Green Line at Zodhia will open on August 31 whether the Greek Cypriot side is ready or not, Turkish Cypriot ‘prime minister’ Ferdi Sabit Soyer told the Cyprus Mail yesterday.
“We will open the crossing on August 31. I hope the Greek Cypriot side will do what is necessary,” Soyer said.
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.
