50 more bodies come home

THE bodies of 50 more passengers who died in the Helios Airways crash in Greece on August 14 were expected to be flown back to Cyprus last night on board two Greek air force C-130 transport planes.

The bodies of 116 passengers of the fatal flight, which killed all 121 on board, have now been identified.

Ninety were identified through DNA testing and 26 by relatives.

Two bodies have not been identified yet, while three are still missing.

Health Minister Andreas Gavrielides said tests would be intensified in order to complete the identification process as soon as possible.

However, he could not say whether any parts of the three missing bodies had been found.

“What I am saying is that geneticists will try their best to identify those bodies, even through parts of their bodies.”

“One could not say with certainty if we will manage, or fail, to identify those body parts, which possibly exist,” the minister added.

Investigators strongly believe that the three missing bodies have disintegrated.

Meanwhile, Greek forensic experts have asked, through Interpol, for a DNA sample from the relatives of the German captain, who has not been identified yet.

The C-130s were expected to depart from Greece at 10.15pm.

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.