NO FLIGHT checks have been carried out on any aircraft in Cyprus in the past 10 months, despite airline companies paying thousands of pounds to the Department of Civil Aviation, a senior official revealed yesterday.
The revelations came in the wake of the August 14 Helios Airways crash in Greece, which killed all 121 on board.
Speaking on state radio yesterday, the head of the civil aviation licensing department Charalambos Hadjigeorgiou said that for the past 10 months, no flight checks had been carried out on any aircraft belonging to the island’s three airlines, Cyprus Airways, Eurocypria and Helios.
And this despite the contracts with the airlines, who paid the civil aviation department a lot of money to conduct checks to their aircraft.
The last contract covered the period between April 1, 2004 and March 31, 2005, the official said.
“They say all checks were done. I can certify that no checks were done,” Hadjigeorgiou said.
Cyprus Airways paid £90,900, Eurocypria £49,000 and Helios £64,800, he said.
A source from the airline industry confirmed to the Cyprus Mail that the airlines shared the costs of bringing in private contractors.
The source said a lot of checks had been carried out on engineering, pilots, aircraft and books and there definitely had been such checks in the past ten months.
However, he confirmed that in-flight supervisory checks had not been conducted for a while.
This involves going on the flight with the pilots and crew, the source said.
One pilot said the specific checks examined whether the company followed the standard operating procedures as they are laid down in the manuals.
He too has not heard of any such checks being conducted in the past year.
An ICAO source suggested, however, that ground checks, including simulators, were much more important.
The source suggested that a flight inspector on board testing the pilot on his knowledge of the procedures was the last step in the cycle.
It is understood that before EU accession, these checks were being carried out by inspectors from the British Civil Aviation Authority.
Hadjigeorgiou further charged that written departmental reports regarding the shortcomings had been ignored by the ministry: “They were put in drawers and left there.”
He added that the reports, which listed deficiencies and made suggestions for improvements, remained without reply for the past 18 months.
The civil aviation official confirmed press reports that employees from other departments had been moved to the Joint Aviation Authorities section during two reviews in 2003 and 2004 – “employees found in the corridors and other services to plug the gaps,” Hadjigeorgiou claimed.
And doubt was cast on the outcome of an EU investigation into the department.
“Who will give them the information from the Department of Civil Aviation and the (Communications) Ministry, which is hiding the truth?”
“Where are the police going to get the evidence from? The same people,” he said.
Hadgigeorgiou wondered what the two British experts, who were handsomely paid, had ever suggested to solve the department’s problems: “What were their suggestions? What have they done to harmonise the department?”
The official said that for the past six years there had been no vision or programme, with the department ending up in the state it was in today.
He even suggested that he would probably lose his job after blowing the whistle on the ministry since his contract contained a clause that banned him from going public with the department’s business.
“Silence is imposed by an anachronistic law on civil servants, which aims solely at gagging people,” Hadjigeorgiou said.
In response, the Communications Ministry last night said that the facts presented by Hadjigeorgiou were misleading in relation with the possible causes of the accident.
“The facts, as they were presented by Mr Hadjigeorgiou, and the time they were presented, create misleading impressions in relation with the issue, and especially for the possible causes of the accident,” the ministry’s statement said.
Due to the minister’s participation in lengthy Cabinet meetings, he would be commenting on the matter in a news conference today.
Political parties issued statements yesterday asking for a thorough investigation into the allegations.
